Who Else?
by write2staysane
Summary: The Doctor tried to make his peace with Rose, but he was always haunted by her memory. What will happen when Rose returns from her world with a painful story and a question that the Doctor can't bring himself to answer? What will he be willing to sacrifice to find peace with the only woman he ever truly loved?
1. It's Killing Me

**A/N: This is my very first published fan fiction, so don't be at all afraid to criticize anything I've done wrong. This story is a Rose/11 story, no River included (not that I don't like her I just like Rose more) and explores the what-ifs about the pairing. The story starts off with the scene in The God Complex where the Doctor looks into his room. I have my own theory of what he saw, which you will see. Please review and give me any thoughts or suggestions because I really don't know where this is going. Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who, Rose and the Doctor would be married and have lots of little Time babies running around the TARDIS.**

Prologue: It's Killing Me

"Of course," The Doctor said, a slight smile on his face. He should have known it would be her. "Who else?" In his room stood a woman, no more than a girl, really, bathed in golden light. Her eyes glowed, the power of the Time Vortex running through her veins. Her hand reached towards the Doctor, tears flowing freely down her cheeks.

"Please," Rose Tyler begged. "It's killing me." The light seemed to filter through her skin, growing brighter and brighter until he couldn't see anymore. He closed the door. Rose Tyler. The pink and yellow human who forced her way past every barrier and into his hearts forever. The last face his previous two bodies had seen. The girl he fell in love with after the Time War stopped him from thinking he could ever care again. The Bad Wolf. The Doctor turned around, placing a Do Not Disturb sign on the doorknob. Rose was gone, locked away in a parallel world with the man she loved, a man that he knew loved her with all his human heart. The Doctor walked away.

He had tried to make his peace with Rose's memory, but soon gave up, burying it deep within him and hoping, wishing that it would go away once he regenerated. But the longing, the pain, and the guilt had stuck with him, and his love for her stayed etched across his hearts. As he turned the corner, he locked his greatest fear away and hoped he would never revisit it again.

**Please tell me what you think, I appreciate any and all feedback.**


	2. Running

**Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who, Rose and the Doctor would be married and have lots of little Time babies running around the TARDIS.**

Chapter 1: Running

Rose Tyler was running. The machine in her hand beeped faster and faster and she sprinted even faster, if it was possible. The sounds behind her were growing louder and louder with every passing second, and Rose was scared, so scared. Reaching into her jacket pocket, she removed a yellow dimension jumper, the last in existence.

After she and John were sent to this world, all of them had been destroyed. They had no purpose anymore. But Rose had kept hers as a token of the Doctor, and in the middle of sleepless nights had snuck out of her bed to John's workshop in the basement of their new house. With the knowledge of technology she had picked up from the Doctor and her computer classes at the university, she had figured out how to make a device that could track down rips in the dimension and modified her dimension jumper to harness the time energy and bring her back to her first universe.

This was the first rip large enough for Rose to jump through, and ironically it had been where she last saw her Doctor. Dårlig Ulv Stranden. Bad Wolf Bay. Now she was being chased by her own former Torchwood team, desperate to reach the gap before it closed. Rose could see it now, a crack seemingly in thin air, slowly opening and letting white light bathe the night in time energy. Rose reached the crack and turned around to face Torchwood. In the front, John Noble-Smith, the man who wore the face of the man she loved, gestured for the others to stop. For a second, Rose and her husband just stared at each other. Then Rose, in one swift movement, removed her gold wedding ring and threw it in the sand at John's feet. He moved as if to grab her, but she pressed the button on her dimension jumper and everything was just a blur of white light and sickening motion and then she was gone.

* * *

The Doctor and the Ponds had just left the hotel when the console room was flooded in golden light. The TARDIS shook, and the three of them grabbed for the railings to try and stay upright. A moment after it began, the shaking stopped and the light dimmed until it was only a faint glow coming from the other side of the console. The Doctor stood slowly and cautiously moved towards the source of the light.

"Doctor?" Amy asked. "Doctor, what just happened?" The Doctor stopped and looked up at her.

"I have no idea, Pond. Care to find out?" Turning around the console, he stopped dead in his tracks. There was a girl, a very familiar girl, laying on her back on the floor of his ship. A girl with blond hair and full lips and undoubtedly hazel eyes behind her closed eyelids. A girl he'd sworn not two hours ago to try and forget.

"Rose?"

**A/N Please review and yes I am aware that this is not how the cracks work but this is fan fiction and I think I can take some liberties. I promise that there will be longer chapters coming soon. (Probably tomorrow because I have no social life) Thank you to all who have followed and favorited! :)**


	3. Doctor? Is that you?

**Thank you all for your support for this story, it means a lot to me. I have no life, so here's another chapter for you. And if anyone here is from the UK and would like to help a poor American out with her language, please PM me. It is a British show and I want to do it justice.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who, Rose and the Doctor would be married and have lots of little Time babies running around the TARDIS.**

Chapter 2: Doctor? Is that you?

The first thing the Doctor did upon finding Rose Tyler, the great love of his 1200+ year life, on the floor of the TARDIS was let out on fast, loud sob. The second thing he did was yell at the Ponds to help him get her to the med bay. Amy and Rory, stunned to see the Doctor go white as a sheet upon seeing this mystery girl and then start crying of all things, took a second to register this.

"Amelia Pond, help me NOW!" Amy jolted, then ran over to the girl and helped the Doctor pick her up and carry her over to the hallway. The TARDIS, sensing her sister's presence, moved the med bay to directly in front of the Doctor.

"Thank you, old girl." He whispered before opening the door. He and Amy, followed by a confused looking Rory, set her down on the bed. For a moment, the Doctor just stared at the girl-Rose, Amy thought he had called her. Amy put her hand on his arm and saw a single tear slide down his face. It hung from his chin for a split second before dropping to land on Rose's cheek. At that moment, the girl's eyelashes fluttered. The Doctor quickly wiped his face and started moving with alarming speed around the room, grabbing devices Amy had never seen before and carrying them to the table next to Rose's bed.

"Doctor." Amy said. The Time Lord in question didn't even glance at her, and instead picked up some scanner thing and running it along Rose's still body. "Doctor!" She exclaimed. Amy wanted an explanation, and she wanted it now.

"What? Amelia, can't you see I'm busy?" The Doctor snapped back at her. He didn't seem angry, though. Amy thought she heard a note of desperation in his voice, and it was confirmed when he looked up at her.

"Sorry, Doctor, but...who is she?" The Doctor sighed and stopped moving. Placing the instrument carefully back on the table, he then collapsed into one of the comfy chairs littering the room. Amy sat down in another across from him and Rory in the one next to her.

"Her name is Rose Tyler. She...she's a former companion of mine. One who I thought I would never see again. She-oh, God," the Doctor's voice cracked on the last sentence. It was obvious that the man was trying to keep himself together. He was bent over with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. Amy couldn't see his face but she was scared of the expression she would find on it.

"You love her." Rory didn't say it with any particular emotion, he just said it like a fact. Like it was obvious to anyone who looked at the Doctor. _Of course_, Amy thought. She hadn't realized, but looking back on the last few minutes, it should have been obvious, even to her. _Especially_ to her! Amy Pond, the girl who thought she knew the Doctor better than anyone, and her husband had figured it out first!

"Yes. Yes, I suppose I do. But that's not the point, Rory! The point is that she shouldn't be here. She can't be here! It is impossible in every way for Rose Tyler to be in this universe, and that frightens me. She might not even be real! And you have no idea how much I want her to be real. If she's not real..." The Doctor had lifted his head while he was talking and fixed Rory and Amy with a stare full of pain and guilt and another emotion she couldn't quite place. He trailed off, staring at Rose's face. She looked peaceful, almost happy, but there were bags under her eyes and her skin had a quality to it that made Amy think of someone desperately ill.

"Doctor, is there something wrong with her? I mean, she seems very real and something feels...I dunno, _off_ about her. Maybe you should check her for injuries." Amy pushed aside her many questions and vowed to ask them all later, but for now she was concerned for the safety of the girl that the Doctor loved. The Doctor nodded, leaping up from the chair and looking at the many instruments on the table.

"Amy?"

"Yes, Doctor?" She replied, wondering why he would need her for something he was obviously more than capable of doing.

"Can you...um, can you take her jacket and jeans off, please? I don't think she would want me to do it." Oh. That's why.

"Yeah, sure." Amy moved over to the bed and unzipped the girl's blue leather jacket, revealing a loose black tank top. Before she took it off, she slid Rose's jeans off as gently as she could. Then she removed the jacket and gasped at what she saw. Rose's arms were purple and black, mottled with bruising and there were dark red scars on her wrists. The bruising was also visible along the very tops of her thighs. Amy backed away slowly before turning to look at the Doctor. She was terrified at what she saw when she did.

The Doctor's face had darkened, his body had tensed up, and his had eyes filled with a rage so great Amy was sure the sight of him would cause any Dalek to flee in sheer terror. His breathing had sped up and it was obvious he was just barely stopping himself from doing something terrible. Amy approached the Doctor slowly, stepping in front of him and blocking Rose from his vision. His eyes locked onto hers. A storm was brewing in those green-gray eyes, and when she saw that, all Amy wanted to do was curl up in a ball and hide. But she forced herself to look at him and grabbed his shoulders.

"Doctor. Doctor, calm down. How are you doing to help Rose if you don't calm down?" The Doctor seemed to barely recognize her enough to register the words, but it was enough. He closed his eyes and relaxed his muscles, and she just let him stand there and breathe for a minute. He finally looked at her and nodded.

"Thank you, Amelia." He said in a soft voice. She nodded.

"Anytime." She let go of him and the Doctor started to move towards Rose again, but with much less urgency than before. "Rory, I think we should go. Is that okay, Doctor?" The Doctor nodded absently and began fiddling with his sonic screwdriver. Amy had no idea how that could help an injured girl, but figured that he knew what was best for Rose. She and Rory were about to leave the room when they heard a girl's voice coming from behind them.

"Where am I?" She sounded scared and lost, and Amy was severely tempted to go to her and comfort her. But then she heard the Doctor's voice.

"Rose, you're on the TARDIS. Do you remember how you got here?" Amy smiled and left the room, her hand in Rory's. The last thing they heard before the door swung shut behind them was Rose's weak voice calling, "Doctor? Is that you?"

**Please review and give me any and all feedback you might have. Thanks!**


	4. Take Me Back

**On to the next chapter! I am so happy with the reception this story has gotten over the last 24 hours, thank you guys so much. Remember, reviews are like Dr. Pepper and heroin: addicting, so feed my addiction and review with any thoughts, positive or negative, you might have.**

**Trigger warning: Mentions of physical abuse, non-explicit. Sorry, but it'll explain some things from the previous chapters.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who, Rose and the Doctor would be married and have lots of little Time babies running around the TARDIS.**

Chapter 3: Take Me Back

Rose blinked. The room she was in was so bright, and she couldn't see a thing. Where was she?

"Rose, you're on the TARDIS," Rose didn't realize she had spoken aloud until a foreign yet familiar voice answered her. "Do you remember how you got here?" No, wait. She had been...running. From who? For a moment, Rose couldn't remember at all. Then a name floated up from her subconscious._ John. John Noble-Smith._ And then she remembered. Every day of the last five years came back to her in a split second and Rose gasped, her vision finally clearing. Sitting next to her was a man she had never seen before in her life. But he said she was on the TARDIS, and he had known her name. It was possible... "Doctor? Is that you?"

"Yes. Yes, Rose, it's me." The new Doctor's face shone with happiness, and Rose couldn't stop herself from smiling back. She tried to sit up, to touch him, prove that the man next to her was real, but her whole body ached, and the bruises on her torso throbbed like they were brand new. She winced and slowly laid her body back down on the bed.

"You regenerated." Rose doesn't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, he no longer looks like John, but if the Doctor regenerated it means he might not love her anymore. More importantly, it means he's a whole different man, a man Rose doesn't know. Maybe he doesn't want her anymore. "Were you alone?" She remembers how painful regeneration looked, and doesn't want to think of him going through that alone.

"Yeah. Yeah, I was. But I said goodbye, to everyone. Even you." When? She couldn't remember anything like that. Except, just maybe... "January 1, 2005. I had a bit too much to drink." Rose's eyes filled up with tears. She remembered that night. She was returning from a New Years party with her mum, but it hadn't really been great for either of them. Rose had recently started to feel like her relationship with Mickey just wasn't enough, and this had put them in some rocky situations. She was afraid to break it off, the last time she did that, she had ended up dropping her A-levels for Jimmy Stone, and didn't feel ready to try being on her own again. Jackie was looking for a relationship, but had had very little luck in the last few years. She was about ready to give up, but Rose didn't want her mum to give up hope. She had seen the strange man in the alley and, remembering the last time she had been drunk-the night after Jimmy hit her-offered some kind words to the man. He had told her that she would have a great year, and she had clung to those words. She hoped that they would come true, and then she met the Doctor in the basement of Henriks and he took her to see the universe. Rose hadn't thought about those words in a while, in fact she had nearly forgotten them altogether.

"Doctor..." She sobbed, letting herself cry freely for the first time in months. She was with her Doctor, back on the TARDIS, and there was no way for John to bring her back. She was free. The Doctor moved closer and sat on the edge of her bed, being careful not to touch her, until she flung herself into his arms.

* * *

The Doctor was basking in the sensation of holding Rose Tyler for the first time in this body. Oh, he had missed her. Leaving Rose was the hardest thing he had ever done, and he was so glad that he had her back. But when he squeezed Rose tighter and felt her wince into his embrace, the Doctor pulled back immediately. The first thing he needed to know was who had hurt his Rose like that. "Rose, who did this to you?" The Doctor asked as gently and softly as he could. Rose wiped her face with the back of her hand and he noticed that she wasn't wearing any makeup. He thought it made her look even more beautiful, but was pulled back into reality by Rose speaking.

"John." Just one word, choked out in barely a whisper. Somehow that one name carried all of the pain and sadness the Doctor saw in her eyes and brought it out to see the world.

"Who's John? Do I know him? Is he in this universe too?" The rage the Doctor had felt was slowly working its way back to the surface, but he pushed it back, ready to comfort Rose if she needed him.

"John Noble-Smith. Your meta crisis, Doctor. The one you said was just like you." The words hit him like a ton of bricks. There was no way he would ever do that to his Rose. Ever. So how could his meta crisis?

"Rose, I would never-" The Doctor wanted to reassure her that he would never hurt her, but Rose cut him off.

"I know. I know that you never would, but the thing is, Doctor, _he wasn't you._ I know how much you wanted him to be you, but he wasn't. Like you told me, he was full of hate and war, and I couldn't make him better. Not like I did you. And...he loved me, he really did." Rose's voice had grown softer and softer while she spoke, and she was still crying, tears slowly dripping out of her eyes without ceremony. The Doctor reached out to brush the tears away, but Rose flinched back. That one simple motion broke his hearts all over again. What had that..._John_ done to his Rose to make her so afraid? He looked into Rose's eyes and saw that she was far away, lost in memories he couldn't even begin to imagine. He took her hand and waited for her to come back to him.

* * *

_Rose couldn't believe it. The Doctor, her Doctor, had left her there. He had left her standing on the shores of Dårlig Ulv Stranden without so much as a goodbye. She kissed the not-Doctor goodbye, and he left her. Rose knew that he needed her to make the meta crisis Doctor better, but couldn't she have done that with him, on the TARDIS? She loved the Doctor, but that was the problem. The man he had left her with wasn't the Doctor. He was some half-human mix of the man she loved, with bits and pieces of Donna woven into his DNA. The meta crisis came up to her and took her hand._

_I will not cry, _Rose thought._ I will not cry because that would just hurt him. _She knew already that she cared for the meta-crisis, but not at all in the same way she cared about her Doctor. So she would go with him, and try to let herself love the man who wore the face of the only person she ever loved with all of her heart and soul. She would force herself not to beg her doctor_ please, take me back!_

Rose blinked and looked up at the new Doctor, letting herself really look at him for the first time. His hair was darker than it used to be, and floppier. It hung over one part of his face, swinging into his eyes, which were endlessly old and the same green of the ocean Rose loved. His chin was slightly more prominent and she could tell even with him sitting down that he was slightly shorter, maybe a half inch or so. His clothes...she giggled when she saw what he was wearing.

"What? Is it the bow tie? Rose Tyler, if I can tell you one thing it's that bow ties are cool." The Doctor straightened the bow tie in question and just that one smug motion made Rose giggle even more. But what really made her laugh was...

"Doctor, what is that on your head?" A bright red hat of some sort was perched jauntily on his head.

"It's a fez. Fezzes are cool, too." All that did was make Rose giggle more. The style suited him, but it was just so ridiculous! "Are you laughing at me, Rose?" But Rose couldn't stop laughing, and she knew that it was probably just the shock from her journey through the void catching up to her. She hugged the Doctor again and just let herself be held. She knew that she would have to tell him everything soon, but for now Rose was happy just to be with the Doctor. _Her_ Doctor.

**Okay, I decided to make this chapter into 2 parts because it's late and I'm kind of getting writer's block. I ended it with a bit of fluff (return of the fez!) to make you people happy, but soon there will me some angst, for which I apologize in advance. Please review and give me any feedback. Also this is un beta'd so feel free to point out any spelling or grammar mistakes. Thank you, lovely people!**


	5. Born Of War

**Props to everyone who has followed and reviewed, your support means a lot to me. I welcome any and all suggestions for later chapters because I really have no idea where I'm going with this.**

**Trigger warning: Mentions of physical abuse, non-explicit. Sorry, but it'll explain some things from the previous chapters.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who, Rose and the Doctor would be married and have lots of little Time babies running around the TARDIS.**

Chapter 4: Born of War

The Doctor left the med bay once Rose fell asleep in his arms. He didn't want to leave her, but thought that he owed the Ponds an explanation. He found them sitting in the console room, talking quietly.

Their voices died when they saw him approaching.

"How is she, Doctor?" Amy asked. The Doctor shook his head.

"I don't know yet. She's been through a lot, and she's asleep now." The Doctor was still angry, but it had primarily been replaced with concern for Rose. He knew that there was a lot she hadn't told him, but hopefully Rose would open up when she was awake.

"Doctor, are you going to tell us what's going on?" Rory asked. The Doctor sat down heavily, exhausted.

"Yes, Rory. It's just...there's a lot of history between Rose and me. I met her after the Time War. I was angry and distant and I wouldn't let myself get close to anyone. I just went around trying to help people and forget what I'd done, and that's how I met Rose. There was an alien invasion in London, and I met her in the shop she worked in. Then I blew it up." The Doctor laughed lowly. That had been so long ago, when he was a completely different man.

"Sorry-you _blew up_ her job?" Amy asked. "That's nice."

"Well, to be fair, I didn't have much of a choice. Alien infestation and all. So I left her that night and didn't think twice about her. Thought we'd never meet again, until I tracked one of the aliens to her flat. She then saved my life, and I asked her to come with me. And you know what Rose did? She said 'no'! To me! Of course, I asked her again and she ran right into the TARDIS, but still. So we traveled for a while, and then she got trapped in a parallel universe. I thought I'd never see her again. Then she came back, but...well, It's a very long story, but let's just say there was a half-human clone of me who could age and die and he and Rose went back to the parallel universe together. I thought that they would be happy. But now here she is."

The Doctor was silent for a moment, and so were the Ponds. They knew he was holding back, he could tell, but the Doctor also knew that they wouldn't push him. Amy might do that sometimes but she knew his limits, and Rose was one of them. It was a while before anyone spoke again.

"So what do we do now?" Amy asked. The Doctor sighed.

"I don't know, Amelia. I don't know."

* * *

Rose woke up no longer feeling as sore, and the headache that had been pounding inside her skull had mostly gone. The room was empty, and Rose felt a sudden urge to find someone. Being alone in a strange room of the TARDIS was doing nothing for her nerves, and she had alway had to be on alert in Pete's World, in case John was around.

"Doctor?" She called. A few seconds later, she heard footsteps in the hall, but they were lighter than those of the Doctor's and slightly more...feminine sounding. The door opened and a young woman with long red hair and an athletic figure. She was quite pretty, and Rose felt a small twinge of jealousy. She pushed it down, however. Now was not the time to be worrying about the Doctor's relationships. The woman came to stand next to her bed. Rose sat up, propping herself up on one of the surprisingly comfortable pillows.

"Who are you?" Rose asked the strange woman. Obviously she was a companion of the Doctor's, but she didn't know her name, relationship with the Doctor, or if she could trust her.

"My name's Amy Pond. My husband Rory and I travel with the Doctor." Rose couldn't stop herself from smiling. Amy was Scottish! "Are you feeling better?" Rose nodded.

"Much, thanks. How long have you known the Doctor?" Now that she knew Amy had a husband, she found herself rather liking the woman, though having only spoken a few words to her. Amy smiled.

"I've known him since I was seven. He crashed in my backyard, then left. He said he'd be back in five minutes, but it was actually twelve years. He saved the planet from being incinerated by aliens, then left again. That time it was two years! Then he came back, and I've been travelling with him ever since." Rose smiled. That kind of sounded like how she met the Doctor. "He changed my world."

"He changes everyone's world. Hey, do you think I could get some clothes? And I'm pretty sure the TARDIS would have kept my room, so I could just go in there." Amy nodded.

"Do you need any help? The Doctor's just parking us, he'll want to talk to you soon." Rose knew that. She glanced down at her bare arms.

"Ask about these, yeah?" She said softly, tracing the scar on her left wrist with a finger. Amy looked away. Rose was used to that; most people in the other universe just turned a blind eye. The only people who had really been there for her were her parents and Tony. "It's a long story."

"I've heard that before." Amy said. Rose slid her legs over the side of the bed and slowly stood up. Her head spun, and she grasped for something to hold on to. She found Amy's arm waiting for her, and gripped it tightly. With the other woman's help, Rose made her way to the door of the med bay. Opening the door, she wasn't surprised to see her room on the other side of the corridor. The rose engraved on the wood was still there, and she smiled, stroking the TARDIS's wall.

"Thanks, old girl." The TARDIS hummed beneath her touch and Amy started.

"I've never seen her do that with anyone before, except the Doctor and River." They walked slowly across the hallway and Rose opened the door to her room for the first time in years.

"Who's River?" Rose's room was exactly how she'd left it all those years ago; with clothes strewn all over the floor and the bed unmade. Letting go of Amy, she walked over to the dresser, where her pictures of the Doctor stood. The first one was of her, Jack, and the big-eared, leather-clad Doctor. It had been taken not long before the Dalek invasion, and the three of them were laughing, probably at one of the outrageous stories Jack told from his time in the Agency. Rose smiled. Those were some of her favorite days, flying around saving the universe with her two best friends.

"River's a good friend of all of ours. And my daughter. She's a time traveler, though, so we keep meeting all out of order. Didn't even know she was my daughter until a few months ago. She was conceived in the Time Vortex, so she and the TARDIS have a bond. Like mother and daughter, I guess. Who's that in the picture?" Rose stroked the Doctor's image.

"That's me and my friend Jack. And the Doctor." Amy looked so confused, Rose figured that she didn't know about the regeneration. Typical. The Doctor would go and die on her like he did Rose and she'd be stuck in an internal battle, just like Rose had been. "Time Lords have this way of cheating death, see. They get fatally injured or something, and then every cell in their body changes. They change their whole image, and a bit of their personality. He's regenerated since the last time I saw him. That was the way he looked when I first met him."

"The one with the big ears and leather and all that?" Rose nodded, a fond smile on her face.

"Yeah. Sometimes I still find myself missing that daft old face. He was so different back then. Not quite as good at hiding the pain as he is now. I suppose I helped him, a bit."

"He told me and Rory a bit about how you traveled together. He said you were the one who taught him how to care again." Amy said it softly, and Rose thought about the words for a moment.

"Yeah, I suppose I did. I loved him. I still do, I guess, and that made all the difference. I didn't care about his past or judge him for it, and I just accepted him the way he was. And for a time, I thought he loved me too. But then he sent me away with his duplicate. I know that he thought it was best for me, but it hurt." Rose was wondering why she was opening up to a complete stranger, but she and Amy seemed to be a lot alike in several ways. Amy didn't seem to be one for letting the Doctor boss her around.

They just stood in silence for a moment before Amy reached for the second picture on the shelf. "When was this?" The picture showed Rose and the brown-eyed, pinstriped Doctor in the fields of New Earth. They were lying in the apple grass with the skyline of New New York in the distance.

"That was right after he regenerated the first time. I wasn't quite sure that he was the same Doctor I had fallen in love with, but in time I came to realize that he was all of that man and more. That was taken in New New York, where I was possessed by a crazy...human, of sorts, and do you know what she did? Using my body, she kissed the Doctor!" Rose and Amy laughed.

"Well,he looks kinda cute in that one. I might want to kiss him too. Of course I've already done that in this body." Rose looked at her, shocked. "He'd just saved my life and I was kind of in shock. It was actually the night before my wedding and I was nervous, so I just went and flung myself at him. Kind of embarrassing now that I think about it." Rose laughed lightly. She could see herself doing something like that.

"I'm going to get dressed, okay?" Amy nodded and left the room. Rose stood there for another moment, staring at the picture of the Doctor. He looked just like John, but he _wasn't_. That's what Rose had to remember. John wasn't the Doctor. The Doctor would never hurt her, and she knew it. She just had to remember that.

* * *

The Doctor was fiddling underneath the console when Amy and Rose walked back into the room. He glanced up and found he couldn't take his eyes off Rose. She wasn't wearing anything special, but just the fact that she was there was so overwhelming emotionally that he didn't want to take his eyes off her in case she disappeared.

"Doctor, she's not a weeping angel. You can blink." Rory teased from the other side if the room. The doctor closed his eyes and shook his head, looking up again to see Rory walk over to Rose and introduce himself.

"I'm Rory Williams, Amy's husband." Rose smiled and shook his hand.

"I'm Rose Tyler. Nice to meet you." The Doctor emerged from under the console and walked over to where the three of them stood.

"Rose, are you feeling any better? I mean, if you still are feeling nauseous, you should probably go back to bed. Unless you feel like talking or traveling or saving Earth again-it always does need saving, doesn't it? I mean, you humans claim to be so independent, but in reality you need me all the time to-" Rose cut him off.

"You still babble just as much as you did in your last body, Doctor. It's good to see you." When he heard that, the Doctor couldn't help himself and pulled her in for a tight hug.

"Oh, Rose Tyler, it's good to see you too." He let her go gently. "So what do you want to do?" He saw Rose tense, just a bit.

"I think...I want you to know what happened in Pete's World, but I don't want to have to tell you everything. It's just too painful;. So d'you think that you could...I dunno, read my memories?" The Doctor thought it over. He could, of course, but was afraid of making Rose uncomfortable or seeing things that he shouldn't. "I know you won't want to, but you said something to Reinette on that spaceship about putting things behind doors. I could try that and just let you see what you need to."

Oh, she was clever. And since he didn't want to cause her any more emotional pain, he really didn't have much choice. "Ponds, could you leave us please?"

"No, let them stay. They should know, and you can tell them later, but I just need a bit of support, yeah?" The Doctor nodded. He understood that. Having your mind invaded, even with permission, was an uncomfortable experience for humans. They felt it was a violation of privacy.

"Just take a moment to hide the things you don't want to show me." He waited for a moment until Rose signaled she was ready. "Okay. Geronimo." Rose grasped Amy's hand as the Doctor's hands moved to the side of her head and his forehead touched hers. And then he was inside her mind.

* * *

_The first thing that came to him was emotion. Love, and trust, and comfort, all directed at him. Then the memories came in quick flashes. The first was John and Rose's first date. He could see that John was completely enamored with her but both he and John could see the sadness and longing in Rose's eyes. The dates flashed by quickly, with Rose losing a bit of that longing each time and trying to learn how to love this man who was not her Doctor._

_Then the night John had proposed. They both worked at Torchwood and had just returned from a mission on another planet. They parked their brand-new TARDIS on the roof of their apartment building and sat and watched the sunset. Then John pulled out a box and got on one knee and asked Rose to marry him. She said yes. How could she not?_

_A few weeks after the wedding, they found out that Rose was pregnant. Three months later, she had a miscarriage. That was the day John first hit her. They had run a DNA test in the hospital, but he wouldn't tell Rose the results. He screamed at her, then when she tried to say something, when she tried to apologize, he hit her. That night, he had his way with her, not caring when she cried and oblivious to her pain._

_This was the start of the beatings. The meta-crisis had been born from war and his violent side had been calmed by Rose. His feeling of betrayal was obvious, and though Rose didn't know what she'd done, she tried to placate him anyways, doing what he asked her to do every time. She still loved him, even then._

_Then Pete died on a peaceful mission to an alien planet that had threatened Earth. The peace treaty was finally negotiated, but Rose had lost her father for another time. Pete had named John as his successor, but instead of Pete Tyler's direct but peaceful approach to hostile aliens, the meta-crisis responded in kind, manufacturing new weapons and using them with abandon. Rose tried to change his views, but he shot her down every time with more beatings. Finally one day, she tried to kill herself. She woke up in the hospital three days later with no memories of what happened after she slid the razor across her wrists._

_That was three years after the Doctor had left them at Bad Wolf Bay, and the following two were spent tinkering with the vortex manipulator in the dead of night and forming a rebellion against her husband. The organization, who called themselves Protectors of the Rights of Otherworldly Species (PROS), located alien crashes and vessels and dispatched people to escort them off the planet safely. It was mostly made up of the people in charge of tracking alien crafts, lead and minor scientists and technicians, and several footsoldiers._

_The day Rose finished her vortex manipulator, John discovered PROS, but by that time Rose had already taken their TARDIS to Dårlig Ulv Stranden and was tracking the crack in the universe. John teleported himself and his team to the bay, but was too late to stop Rose from leaving. She threw her wedding ring down and was gone._

The Doctor pulled back with a gasp_._

**Thanks for bearing with me on this über long chapter, and I hope it answered some of your questions. Please review and let me know what you think. Was it good? Not good? To violent? Anything you want to say, please say it. :)**


	6. How About Barcelona?

**Okay, I haven't updated in a while (damn writer's block), sorry, but I do hope this chapter was worth the short wait. You all ask for longer chapters, I put them out slower. It's really only natural. I'd thank all of you who followed and favorited and reviewed personally but that would take forever so just know that if you did I am tremendously grateful. Okay, you don't want to hear me talk...write...whatever, so on with the story! (Review, follow, et cetera. I'm sure you get the gist of it.) WARNING: Major fluff alert in the second part of the chapter**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who, Rose and the Doctor would be married and have lots of little Time babies running around the TARDIS.**

Chapter 5: How About Barcelona?

Amy didn't know what the Doctor saw when he touched Rose, but it must have been horrible. He was only touching her for a split second, but in that second she saw sadness and pain and a deep, terrible rage cross his face, the face she was used to seeing with a smile and a smart retort about how cool his bow tie or fez was. Then the Doctor yanked back, an expression of horror settling on his face. Rose had been gripping Amy's hand throughout the process, and she didn't let go now. Her eyes were open, but so far away. Amy knelt down beside the girl and took her other hand.

"Rose, come back to us. TARDIS to Rose, TARDIS to rose, please step back inside." Amy said, as jokingly as she could manage. Rose's eyes snapped onto Amy's with such intensity that she almost flinched. "Rose, are you okay?" Amy asked.

"No. But maybe soon." Rose seemed exhausted, and the tone of her voice was weary. Amy stood up and pulled the other girl to her feet. Rose's walk was still unbalanced, so Amy helped her back into the hallway and into her room. Rose sat down on her bed and put her head in her hands.

"Is there anything I can do?" Amy asked. She wanted to help Rose, even though they had barely met. She thought that, given time, the two of them could become great friends.

"Not right now, thanks. I just want to sleep." Rose lay down on the bed and pulled the covers up around her. Amy nodded and walked to the door. The TARDIS automatically turned off Rose's lights, and Amy stood at the threshold for a moment. Rose had put up a fight, wherever she had come from, that Amy could tell. But what had been done to her? Who had tried to break the strong, beautiful woman the Doctor so obviously loved?

Amy made her way back to the console room, where the Doctor was tinkering under the controls and Rory sat, looking exasperated. "He won't tell me anything," her husband whispered. "He just keeps fiddling with the wires or whatever it is he does down there." Amy nodded and sat down beside Rory, grasping his hand and lacing her fingers through his.

"I guess he'll tell us when he's ready. Rose thought that we should know, so he's got to. We should just give him time." Amy responded quietly, though having to raise her voice slightly to be heard over the sound of the sonic screwdriver, which the Doctor was using to fix some unknown problem with the console. She was just as curious as Rory, but knew that she should wait for the Doctor to open up by himself, given his current state of moodiness.

"I can hear you two! I have _superior Time Lord biology_, just in case you didn't know!" Called the Doctor from beneath the console, still buzzing with the screwdriver. He sounded like a petulant child who knew his parents were keeping secrets from him. Amy laughed.

"I know, Mr. I'm-so-high-and-mighty. You've pointed it out to us lowly mortals several times, you know. Now, when are you going to tell us?" She couldn't help ribbing him a little bit, because maybe that was exactly what he needed. Even if he was moody. She heard the Doctor audibly sigh, then he turned off his sonic and climbed up from beneath them.

"Alright, Ponds. I'll give you the short version." And he went on to tell them how he had created the meta crisis with the help of a woman named Donna, and that they had defeated the Daleks and he had made the decision to let Rose go, and to let her help his double. He explained that Rose had learned to love the meta crisis-_John_, he said with some bitterness-and they had gotten married. They worked for an alien- fighting/helping organization called Torchwood that Amy didn't quite understand. Then he told them how John had abused Rose and his powers at Torchwood. That made Amy see red. How could a man who claimed to be just like the Doctor treat any woman, let alone Rose, the woman he loved and who loved him, like that? It was cruel and pointless and so against everything she had ever seen the Doctor do it was almost unfathomable. Fifteen minutes later, they had their answers.

"You call that the short version, Doctor? What was the long version, a five-page essay?" Rory asked. Amy swatted him on the arm. After all that, that was the first thing he said? "Sorry, sorry! But really, that's horrible. Can we do anything to help, Doctor?"

"Just be there for her, Rory. I don't know how it all affected her long-term, but Rose is the strongest woman I've ever known, and I know she won't break easily. I want her to be okay, but this kind of thing takes time. Lots of time." The Doctor sighed. "Permission?" Rory nodded. Amy threw her arms around the Doctor without hesitancy, and he hugged her close enough that she could feel his hearts beating against her.

"I'm sorry." She whispered into his ear.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Pond. It wasn't your fault. If anything, it's my fault. I sent her away." he replied, and Amy's heart broke. She could tell that he believed what he said, and was beating himself up for it. "It might as well have been me who hurt her like that. It was, in a way." He said this so that Rory could not hear, and Amy pulled away from the Time Lord and looked at him in horror.

"No. Don't you ever think like that, Doctor. _It. Was. Not. Your. Fault._ You hear me, raggedy man? Whatever happened to Rose was the fault of some other man, and _he is not you_. And if you can't get that through that unbelievably thick skull of yours I might have to take a leaf out of River's book and slap some sense into you. Got that?" She said vehemently. The Doctor, who had a mixture of shock, amusement, and fear on his face, nodded.

"God, remind me not to make you angry." Rory commented. Amy turned to him and smiled sweetly.

"Oh, I will. Now come on, husband, we're going to bed. Doctor, try to get some sleep." She grabbed Rory's hand and led him towards their bedroom. "Goodnight, Doctor."

"Goodnight, Ponds." Once in their bedroom, Amy peeked out the door to see the Doctor down the hall, peering into Rose's dark room. "Goodnight, Rose." She heard him whisper, and she smiled as she shut the door again. Rose would be okay, she knew, as long as she had the Doctor by her side.

* * *

Rose opened her eyes to bright sunlight filtering in through her window, and for a moment couldn't remember where she was. Then she realized that she was back in the TARDIS with her Doctor and a wide grin began stretching across her face. She was home! Swinging her legs out of bed, Rose realized that 1. she was still wearing the clothes she had changed into yesterday and 2. she hadn't showered in three days. So, grabbing a towel, she walked to the door that she thought she remembered to lead to her bathroom, but when she opened it, she realized that she was definitely not in the bathroom.

The room Rose had stepped into was huge, with a towering, arched ceiling that was painted to look like the landscape of an unfamiliar planet. The sky was burnt orange, though still relatively dark and with many stars out, with one sun high in the sky, and one rising from the white-tipped mountains. The floor was the perfect image of a grassy, orange field. A silver forest could be seen in the distance, and then Rose realized that the scene was moving! The sun was really rising, and wind rustled the grass beneath her feet and the trees in the distance. A towering dome was pictured on one of the walls, with a city of giant skyscrapers reaching towards the sky.

Rose looked now not at the images on the walls and ceiling but the actual contents of the room. She was shocked at what she saw. There was only a small wardrobe, a desk scattered with papers with swirling, circular images on them, and a four poster bed, on which the Doctor was sprawled on his back wearing nothing but his open button-down shirt and his trousers. Rose gasped and moved to exit the room, but that tiny sound woke the Doctor and he sat up straight, his eyes wild and hair sticking every which way. Rose couldn't stop herself giggling. The Doctor's eyes locked onto hers, and he relaxed, smiling as well.

"Hello Rose. Did you sleep well?" Rose's eyes had now wandered down to his mostly bare torso, and the Doctor flushed, starting to button his shirt.

"Um...yeah, thanks." Rose mumbled, blushing as well. She smiled shyly, looking once again at the scenery. The second sun was now almost above the mountains, banishing the last of the stars from the sky. "This is beautiful." She stepped farther into the room as the Doctor pulled up his suspenders and stood up. He made his way over to Rose and stood behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his head on her shoulder. She tensed, and the Doctor made to move away, but Rose quickly grabbed him behind her back and pulled him closer.

"This is Gallifrey. Or how I like to remember it, at least. Beautiful, indeed." Rose felt his breath on her neck and shivered. She had almost forgotten how it felt to be touched lovingly, with no malice or ulterior motive. She let herself be held by this new Doctor who was so different from the ones she had fallen in love with, and she found herself falling in love again, all at once. And she couldn't stop herself from whispering it into the silence of the room with the burnt orange sky.

"I love you." And he didn't move. The Doctor just stood there for a moment, and Rose was suddenly afraid that he would send her back, but she forced herself not to move and hoped with all of her being that he would say something, anything at all. And she let herself melt into him when he whispered it into her ear, so softly that it was almost just a breath, another exhale.

"Rose Tyler, I love you too." And they just stood and watched the second sunrise in silence. And when it was finally above the mountains and the silver trees glittered in the artificial sunlight, he kissed her. And Rose kissed him back. It wasn't rushed or heated, just long and slow and sweet, and Rose wrapped her hands around him, her Doctor. And when it was over, she just rested her forehead against his and kept her eyes closed.

Eventually Rose went to shower and the Doctor put on his bow tie and went to the console room to figure out their next destination. When Rose dressed, she headed to the kitchen to find the Doctor and both Amy and Rory already sitting around the table eating pancakes. Well, the Ponds were eating pancakes, and the Doctor was eating something completely different.

"What are you eating?" Rose exclaimed.

The Doctor looked up guiltily and swallowed before mumbling, "Fish fingers." Rose eyed the bowl of cream colored liquid suspiciously.

"And...?"

"Um...custard?" Rose gagged. That was _horrible_!

"How can you eat that? I...oh my god, is that all you eat?" She had _kissed_ him! He flushed dark red, as Amy and Rory tried to cover their laughter.

"I still like bananas!" He offered. Rose grinned. As long as he brushed his teeth regularly, she didn't really care. And she wouldn't know how bad it was until she tasted it. Steeling herself, Rose leaned over his shoulder, swiped a fish finger, dipped it in the custard, and popped it in her mouth. She was prepared to spit it out, gagging at the taste, but instead she found herself rather enjoying it. It was ood, certainly **(ha... ha.. see what I did there?)**, but it wasn't an overall bad taste.

"That's not that bad, actually." She commented after swallowing, and saw Amy and Rory watching her with horror. The Doctor, on the other hand, was beaming.

"I _knew_ I liked you for a reason, Rose Tyler! Thinks bow ties are cool and likes fish fingers and custard!" Rose grinned back at him and went over to the counter to go pour herself a bowl of cereal. Sitting down at the table, she smiled at Amy and the still-stunned woman gaped at her.

"How can _you_ eat that?" Rose laughed.

"I have no idea. I mean, it sounds disgusting, but it's really not too bad. So, Doctor, where are we going today?" The Doctor swallowed another bit of fish.

"I was thinking Barcelona! Never took you to see those dogs with no noses, huh?" Rose grinned at him again, her tongue poking out between her teeth.

"Wait, dogs with no noses in Spain? Am I missing something?" Rory asked, clearly confused.

"The _planet_ Barcelona, Rory the Roman! Dogs with no noses, utterly fascinating species. What do you say, Ponds? Barcelona?"

"I'm in. Are you sure you can get us there?" Amy asked, smirking. She and Rose shared a knowing look.

"Last time he tried to take me to Barcelona, we ended up being held hostage on some fairy-tale planet by these centaur guys. They almost shot him in the head 'cause he wouldn't shut up!" Rose and Amy laughed and the Doctor pouted at them.

"Of course I can get you there. Come along, Ponds. And Rose. Hmm. I need a new way to say that now that you're here, Rose." The four of them headed to the console room, which Rose noticed was drastically different from the time she'd been traveling with the Doctor.

"You redecorated." Rose noted.

"Yup. When I regenerated, the poor girl crashed, and she fixed herself up. Made some changes, too. New Doctor, new TARDIS, I guess. She does that sometimes." Rose stroked the console, like she had sometimes seen the Doctor do, and the TARDIS hummed happily. The Doctor ran around the controls, flipping levers and pressing buttons. Rose suspected that some of them were just for show, to make him look cool, but kept her mouth shut. The ride went smoothly for once, and when they stopped, Rose ran over to the familiar doors.

"Barcelona?" She said.

"Barcelona!" The Doctor replied. Rose opened the door, and the expression on her face went from excited to horrified as a bright green light flashed and a gun went off. Rose collapsed onto the floor of the TARDIS before the Doctor or the Ponds had the chance move.

_"Rose!"_

* * *

**Yes, I know, I'm evil. Mwa-ha-ha-ha! But don't you worry, I'll update soon (I think) and you will get your answers. Please review and give me your feedback, and if you feel so inclined, check out my Doctor Who one-shot: A New Memory. Thanks, lovely people**


	7. I Can Try

**Hello again! I know, I left you with a cliffhanger, but what can I do? My muse comes and goes as she pleases (I named her Idris) and she whispers in my ear. I am not to blame; I only relay what she tells me! She came and sat on my shoulder again, and so you all get a new chapter. Review, give me feedback, spelling errors, blah blah blah. Thanks! :P**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who, Rose and the Doctor would be married and have lots of little Time babies running around the TARDIS.**

Chapter 6: I Can Try

_"Rose!"_ The Doctor's cry echoed throughout the console room. He lunged forwards, and crouched by her still form. He looked up, out of the door of the TARDIS, and saw several humanoid figures holding weapons. They were standing very still, but he could still deduce which one had shot Rose. He looked down at her body and held two fingers to her neck, frantically muttering, _begging_ her not to be dead.

"Rose, come on. Come back to me. Don't you_ dare_ do this to me, Rose Marion Tyler." He didn't even notice that he'd started to cry until he felt Amy's arm around his shoulders. He looked up at her, and saw that she was deathly pale. Her eyes were fixed on Rose. "Amy, there's no pulse. Why doesn't she have a pulse?!" His voice rose in volume and pitch until he was yelling not at Amy, but at the creatures outside the TARDIS. "You killed her! You. Killed. Her!"

"You will come with us. The females are of no importance." The creature in the front of the pack said. The one that had shot Rose. It raised its gun again and pointed it at Amy. In the split second before it fired, the Doctor tackled his companion to the ground, out of view of the creatures.

"Stay here. I can't lose you too." His voice cracked on the word 'lose', but he turned back towards Rory and spoke with confidence. "Come on, Rory. We're going with them. See what they want." The Doctor's voice was harsh and lacked his normal compassion. He stood up and walked to the door, Rory right behind him.

"You will come with us." The creature said again. The Doctor studied the creature, trying to recall if he had seen their species before. They were humanoid, yes, but their skin texture was reptilian, and the colors ranged from dark brown to a bright red. Their eyes were large and completely black, and their noses were slits. Their lips were merely lines in their faces. They had no hair, but there was some sort of membrane sticking up from the top of their heads. They wore animal skins instead of cloth, but held hi-tech sonic plasters in their claw-like hands. The Doctor shook his head. He'd never seen them before in his life. The leader pointed his gun at them and commanded them to walk.

"Where are you taking us? What planet is this?" The Doctor asked as he marched along, not letting the creature say anything else.

"You are on Lupo Cattivo. How can you be ignorant of this?" The being asked. The Doctor scowled, then the words processed. Lupe Cattivo. Bad wolf in Italian. He started to tear up again, remembering the meaning of those two words. It meant that Rose would always find him. That there was always a way back. _Well, there's no way back now,_ he thought. _She's dead. Dead!_ "We are taking you to see the emperor. You will be tried and sentenced for your crimes.

"What crimes, sorry?" Rory asked. He still stood behind the Doctor, but glanced back towards the TARDIS every few seconds. The Doctor hated to drag Rory away from his wife, but he wouldn't risk Amy's life.

"You were in possession of females without a deed. You trespassed on the private property of General Akton-Chen. These are crimes punishable by death." The Doctor snorted.

"You make women sound like property." He said scornfully.

"They are." The creature replied. "I am Private Jathrex. I will be either your overseer or your executioner." The Doctor snorted, but soon became lost in thought. He was positive he had set the correct coordinates for Barcelona, but the TARDIS had brought them here instead. Had his ship known that Rose would get shot? And if she did, why would she bring them in the first place; he knew that the ship had a special bond with Rose since she looked into the heart of the TARDIS. So why would she bring them to a place that had ultimately gotten Rose killed? The Doctor was so preoccupied that he barely noticed his surroundings and only took note of where he was when the small party stopped in front of a tall, modern looking building.

"Doctor?" Rory asked, his nervousness evident in his voice. "We're going to get out of here, right? I mean, you _do_ have a plan. Don't you?" The Doctor glanced over at the man, remembering that he had to worry about Rory and Amy if he wasn't going to bother looking out for himself.

"Of course, Rory. I just haven't figured it out yet." Rory rolled his eyes, probably having been expecting something like that. He was learning that life with the Doctor usually included last-minute plans and desperate running for their lives at some point or another in any given trip. The Doctor grinned, even as his mind shot into overdrive. How _were_ they going to get out of this one? And, more importantly, what would he do when they got back?

* * *

Amy was panicking. The Doctor had taken Rory and left her with Roses body and she had no idea what to do. So she did the natural thing. She sat down and cried. Not for long, mind, but just enough so that her emotions didn't overwhelm her. Then, once she had finished crying, she started to think of things to do.

The first thing she did was move Rose. It was hard work-the girl weighed about as much as she did-but Amy finally managed to get her into her bedroom and onto her bed. Amy took a minute to look around at Rose's room and see what she could tell about the strange girl that the Doctor loved.

The room was messy, that much was obvious. The walls were painted a strange but beautiful blue-green color that Amy had only seen once in her life. It was on a trip with the Doctor, when she had forgotten Rory. He had taken her to an Atraxi marketplace, where they sold the most marvelous things, imported from all around the galaxy. She had found a swath of silk in that exact color and had never seen anything like it in her life. When she asked the Doctor where it came from, he smiled so sadly she immediately regretted asking.

_"That's the color of the water of the beaches of Woman Wept. It's one of the most beautiful sights in the universe."_ The way he had said that last bit hade made Amy think that in his eyes, the person he had gone with was infinitely more beautiful than the waters of Woman Wept. Only now did she realize that he had been thinking about Rose. She now could pinpoint exact times when someone had said something that reminded him of his lost love, or he had been someplace that made him look so terribly sad, and they had been startlingly often. Amy knew that it had been years since he had lost Rose, but the pain must have been deep enough that he still felt it every day. One such instance stood out in her mind.

_"One last day with your beloved. Which day would you choose?"_ The words of Kazran Sardik, the man she and the Doctor had met on her honeymoon, rung in her ears.

_"Better a broken heart than no heart at all."_ The thought of the Doctor's reply made Amy tear up. She realized now that the Doctor knew that better than anyone. And she had no idea how he would go on living without Rose. She had been back for only a day, but Amy had started to see the little changes in the Doctor's demeanor now that Rose was around. His smile was much less forced, some of the pain and sadness in his eyes was gone, and he was opening up more. And that was such a good thing to see, until Rose had gotten shot. Amy looked at the girl laying on the bed and could almost believe that she was peacefully asleep, except for the fact that Rose's eyes were open and unseeing. She reached over the bed and closed them. Amy walked over to the door and turned out the light. Before Amy closed the door though, she almost swore that the saw a faint golden glow seeming to shine beneath Rose's skin. She shook her head.

_"You try it sometime!"_

Amy waited in the console room for something to happen. She wasn't quite sure what, but in her head it was something like Rose getting up and being alive and okay, or the Doctor and Rory coming back because they had been knighted and laden with gifts, or something even halfway good. Instead, she waited. In the TARDIS, it could have been five minutes or five hours, but when the Doctor finally did come stumbling through the doors, Amy almost screamed. He was carrying a limp Rory in his arms.

"Oh my God, Doctor! Is he okay?" _Don't let Rory be dead, please! Not Rory too! _The Doctor barely glanced at her, his eyes fixed on Rory. He seemed to be thinking ten times faster that Amy was sure it was possible to speak.

"He'll be fine. Probably. On the plus side, he's not dead yet!" Amy rolled her eyes, even in a crisis the Doctor still found time to make some sort of quip.

"That is not making me feel better, Raggedy Man!" Amy said.

"Relax, he's going to be okay, we just need to get the toxins out of his system. He'll be good as new in fifteen minutes. Now, open the door to the med bay, he'll be dead in ten if we don't move fast." Amy's eyes widened, but she moved without a word to open the conveniently placed door of the medical bay. The Doctor placed Rory on one of the exam tables before moving over to the cabinets, where Amy was sure he kept all kinds of futuristic medical supplies. She was right, seeing as the Doctor pulled out several instruments she had never seen before in her life.

Turning her attention to her husband, Amy was shocked at what she saw. Rory's shirt was ripped open and there were three long claw marks along his left side. And blood. There was so much blood, not only on him but on his clothes and the Doctor, from whee he had been carrying the injured man.

"He saved my lie, back there. That toxin is incredibly fatal to Time Lords but much less so to humans. If he hadn't gotten in front of me, I'd be dead right now." The way the Doctor said that made Amy look at him hard. There was something in his voice, something Amy could only describe as longing. It told her that now Rose was dead, the Doctor had lost his will to live.

"No. No, you don't think like that, Doctor. You can't just give up on life now that she's gone. And I know that you loved her and that's hard, but there is nothing you can do. You can't just wake her up with a kiss and-"

"Amelia Pond, you are a _genius!_" The Doctor grinned and ran out of the room before Amy could figure out what she had said.

"Doctor, what about Rory? And what did I do?" The Doctor poked his head back in and tossed her his sonic screwdriver.

"Setting 221b should do the trick. And Jack Harkness, Amy! Jack Harkness and his wonderful kisses of life!"

* * *

Captain Jack Harkness was bored. It had been seven months since the Doctor had said goodbye to him, and there had hardly been any noteworthy alien invasions since. I mean, would it kill the man to give them a decent job to do? Jack was working on a piece of alien tech they had found a couple months ago when his scanners picked up the familiar radiation readings of the TARDIS. He jumped up and ran towards the scanners, but couldn't get a reading of where it had landed. So Jack grabbed his coat and headed towards the lift.

He was standing on the perception filter when he saw them. Three people were walking across the square, not talking. One was a tall redhead with...oh, nice legs, one was a very cute younger guy who looked like he had a really horrible hangover, and one was a twenty-something guy who was wearing a bow tie and staring straight at him. Wait, what? Jack looked down to make sure he was standing on the perception filter, then back at the man, who was now steering his utterly clueless companions in Jack's direction. Jack sighed and stepped off the platform. He thought he knew who the man was, but he had better be certain.

"Who are you?" The man didn't answer him, but turned and glared at his friends.

"Can you see him now, Ponds? I swear, you two are so unobservant." The woman rolled her eyes, and the other man just looked sick. "Ah, Jack. Come with me." The man, who Jack was certain was the Doctor, grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the end of the square. Jack turned around and shot a wink at the young man, who looked less ill than he had a moment ago. He was quite cute, but the redhead grabbed his right hand, and the man held up his left hand to show a gold wedding band. _Sorry_, he mouthed.

"Doctor, where are we going?" The Doctor turned and looked at him, but didn't slow his pace.

"I need your help. We're going back to the TARDIS." Then Jack saw the pain in his eyes.

"You lost a companion and want me to help?" Jack said. It was more a statement than a question, and the Doctor nodded. But Jack sensed he was holding something back.

"Rose." That one word explained everything, but gave him more questions.

"I thought you left her with the meta crisis?" The Doctor nodded again.

"She came back. I'll tell you later, just come on! She got shot and now she's dead but you can bring her back. And before you ask, it was only six or seven minutes. You should be fine." Jack nodded. He'd ask questions later.

The Doctor led them into a back alley, where the TARDIS was parked and flung open the doors without ceremony. Jack didn't look around, he just followed the Doctor into a room with a roe engraved on the wood. The Doctor stood back and Jack slowly opened the door.

At some point, the two people the Doctor had called the Ponds had left them, so Jack and the Doctor were the only people to see the gold energy swirling in Rose's room. The Doctor was frozen for a moment, as was Jack, but then they both rushed over to the bed where Rose's body lay. The Doctor took her pulse, but by the way he looked at Jack, he knew there wasn't one. Light was streaming from Rose's pores, but Jack figured that if it was regeneration energy, it wasn't enough to bring her back. So he leaned down and put his mouth onto hers, breathing life into her still form. He did it three times, just to be sure, then pulled back and waited.

The light coming from Rose grew even brighter, and soon it was so bright it blinded the two men. When it dimmed, Rose was still lying on the bed, but there had been minute changes to her appearance. All her makeup was gone, and instead of bottle-blonde, her hair had changed to a dark chestnut, the color of her roots when she hadn't dyed her hair in a while. And then they saw that she was breathing, slowly and evenly, and that her eyelids were fluttering. She gave a deep sigh, rolled over, and went to sleep.

Jack and the Doctor crept out of the room. The TARDIS lowered the lights, and Jack closed the door behind him. The look on the Doctor's new face was one of pure relief. In a moment of reckless gratitude, the Doctor kissed him, then pulled back and wrapped the startled immortal in a hug.

"Thank you, Jack." Jack hugged him back, and pulled away after a few moments.

"Look, Doctor, I know that you love her, but you can't just come running to me to fix it if she dies again. She's human. She's going to die. And you know that you can't have her forever." The Doctor's face hardened.

"You think I don't know that? I'm reminded of that every moment I see her, and it kills me. So maybe I can't have her forever, but I can try. I can try to give her forever, and I don't care if hers is shorter than mine, she deserves it." Jack looked at his friend and nodded. He understood that. He would live forever, and that meant watching the people he loved wither and die. He knew the pain the Doctor went through every time he lost a companion.

"Okay. But please, treat her right." The Doctor nodded.

"Like I'd do anything else." The two men headed back to the console room.

* * *

_The Sycorax had invaded, and there was nothing that Torchwood could do to make them back down. John had threatened them with destruction, but still they had descended upon Earth. Now Torchwood was trying to kill over three thousand armed aliens. Rose had been told by John to go back to their house, but instead she ran over to her mother's. She needed to know that her mum and Tony were safe. She got there the same time as three Sycorax. She watched from the bushes as they dragged her mother out of the house, clutching Tony in her arms. She was screaming, begging them not to hurt her little boy, but the aliens paid her no mind. Rose saw one raise it's sword. She turned her back. The screams of her family still echoed in her ears._

Rose woke up screaming, wrapped in her sweaty bedsheets. _They're dead. They're all dead and it's my fault._ She untangled herself from the blankets and walked into the bathroom. She started when she saw her hair. What had happened? The last thing she remembered was walking towards the TARDIS doors, ready for Barcelona. Shrugging, she splashed her face with water and brushed her teeth and hair. She walked into her closet and grabbed some clothes, still thinking about her dream. That had really happened. Her mother and brother had died only a month before Rose had left. She was usually alone that month. Her team at Torchwood could work fine without her, and she finally had time to perfect her vortex manipulator. She was always working. She had to keep her mind off of her mum, and Tony, and Pete. Had to stop thinking about what John did to her every night.

Rose walked to the console room fully clothed and was shocked when she saw Jack leaning against the controls and (unsuccessfully) trying to chat up Amy, who looked in no way impressed.

"How long was I out? And what did I miss?" All eyes in the room turned to her. The Doctor looked like he was about to cry, and the other three weren't doing much better. "What happened?" The Doctor opened his mouth, and Rose knew she wouldn't like what he was going to say.

"Rose," He said very gently. "You died."

**Yes, yes-another sort-of cliffhanger. I'm so terrible. But seriously, thanks for all the reviews an support I've gotten for this story! If you're so inclined, feel free to check out my one-shot A New Memory (shameless self promotion) about Rose and the meta crisis. It is not set in this world, so no angst or anything, just pure fluff. Pease review, follow, favorite, and give me any feedback whatsoever. I'll probably be updating soon. Probably.**


	8. Heart of my TARDIS

**Hello again! How are you all? No, don't answer that. God, I'm hyper. Why am I so hyper? Now I'm rambling. Okay. So, yes, review pretty pretty please, follow and/or favorite if you like, and I hope you like my next chapter. We get some flirty Jack goodness! I know you weirdos love Jack (I'm such a hypocrite; I love him too) so I give you more Jack. Please give me any feedback or mistakes and just so you know I am always open for any suggestions you might have! WARNING: MAJOR FLUFF. IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY UTTER FLUFFINESS, PLEASE DO NOT READ. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.**

**EDIT: Okay, I've gone back and edited the chapter. I've got writers block, and I learned the hard way yesterday not to write when I lose inspiration. Thank you to Blackspots for the incredibly helpful and humbling review, your insights were very helpful.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who, Rose and the Doctor would get married and have lots of little Time Babies running around the TARDIS.**

Chapter 7: Heart of my TARDIS

"You _died_, Rose." Those words rang in Rose's head as fresh as the moment they had been spoken. She stared at the Doctor in horror. She didn't believe it. She didn't _want_ to believe it. But the look on everyone's faces said that the Doctor was telling the truth.

"But I didn't die-I'm right here! Look at me, I'm not dead!" Her voice rose a bit in pitch, and she quickly shut up. She wasn't going to go all hysterical in front of the Doctor and people she barely knew. It would have been okay alone with Jack, but that was not the case. So she took a few deep breaths and closed her eyes. There was a lingering soreness in her body and her bruises hurt worse than they usually did, but Rose figured that it was to be expected. She had apparently just died, after all. She opened her eyes. "Okay. Okay, say I actually did die. How did I come back?" The Doctor and Jack shared a look Rose couldn't quite read.

"Jack brought you back. You made him immortal, and now he has these extremely hi-tech nanogenes living in his body that he can transfer to other people and basically bring them back from the dead. You remember the nanogenes, right? Way back when I couldn't dance to save my incredibly long life?" Rose got the feeling that there was something he wasn't telling her, but the memory made her and Jack laugh.

"Are you my mummy?" She called to Jack, who grinned. Rory and Amy looked lost. "That happened when Jack and I travelled with the Doctor. We had a lost little boy looking for his mummy with a gas mask for a face. Then I tried to teach the Doctor to dance. That didn't go very well." Rose started down the stairs and grabbed Jack in a big hug. "Oh, I missed you."

" I missed you too, Rosie." She flung her arms around his neck and gave him a light kiss, which he tried to deepen.

"Ah ah ah! Friendly. I'm taken." Rose grinned, nodding towards the Doctor, who blushed.

"Really, now? When did this happen? I mean, I thought you'd be in that parallel universe with that meta-crisis fellow. Unless he's around here too somewhere?" Jack's tone was playful, but Rose couldn't stop herself from stiffening in his embrace. "Rose? Is everything okay?" Rose let him go quickly.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. It's just-Doctor, you didn't tell him?" The Doctor looked down. She sighed. She really didn't want to be the one to give Jack the news about John, but it seemed that the Doctor didn't either. She sighed.

"John-the meta crisis- he was abusive." She steeled her heart against the words, but they still hurt. She had loved John, but he had still hurt her. There were scars on her body, heart, and soul, that would never heal from what John had done to her. "So I escaped the parallel world and came back to the Doctor." Rose made it sound simple, but she was still so confused. She wasn't sure she even knew what real love was anymore. All she knew was that the Doctor made her happy, made her forget the horrible years she had spent in that other world.

"I am going to _kill_ him. Rose, how can I get back there? I swear to god, I'll kill him and bring him back just to have the pleasure of killing him again." Jack's face had darkened, and he looked positively murderous. "No one hurts my Rosie like that. _No one._" Rose put a calming hand on his arm.

"Jack, it's okay. He's trapped there, and seriously, it's no big deal. What's done is done." She walked over to the Doctor, who had been watching the exchange silently, and twined her fingers with his. "Right, Doctor?" He smiled at her softly.

"Well, I can't say I don't want to do some serious damage to his internal organs, but I suppose that it's impossible. So yes. What's done is done." Rose suddenly felt a strong urge to kiss him again. They had kissed three times, her and the real Doctor. Once, when she was the Bad Wolf and couldn't even remember until weeks later, and again when she was being possessed by Cassandra. And then, just yesterday, in his bedroom that was, by extension, Gallifrey. So she stood up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips agains his, in front of the Ponds and Jack.

It was a short, sweet kiss that begged for more, but Rose pulled away quickly. She didn't want to get into that with Jack around. He's just want in.

"What was that for?" The Doctor seemed confused, but pleased.

"Do I have to have a reason?" She grinned cheekily up at him.

"No, I suppose not." And he leaned down and kissed her again. His hands moved down to her hips, and her hands reached up to tangle in his hair. She got the feeling that they really shouldn't be doing this in the console room and was about to suggest continuing elsewhere, but then they were broken apart by the sound of Jack protesting to Amy about something. She was trying to drag him out of the room.

"But, Amy, it's just getting good! They won't mind, will you, guys?" He gave them a pleading look, but Rose and the Doctor only laughed.

"Come now, Jack, I thought you were above things like that." Rose teased.

"Me? Never! I may be hundreds of years old but I'm still the over-sexed teenager I was in the 51st century. You know that, Rosie!" He winked at her.

"Come on, you pervert. Give the happy couple some privacy!"Amy urged, and Rose saw the Doctor shoot her a thankful glance.

"Only if I can join you and your adorable husband, gorgeous. I mean, I'm literally the fifth wheel here. Haven't any of you people ever heard of a threesome?" But Rose shot him a look and he allowed himself to be dragged away by the Scottish woman.

"Now, Doctor, where were we?" The Doctor grinned at her.

"I believe somewhere around here..." He trailed off as he kissed her again, pulling her pack into him. Though she was thoroughly enjoying herself, Rose broke away after a moment.

"Doctor, why don't we move this somewhere more private? I still think Jack might be spying." The Doctor nodded and they were just about to head into his room when a flash of light blinded them. They opened their eyes to find that they had another guest.

* * *

"River!" The Doctor cried, but forgot about her when he heard Rose's exclamation, a split second after his.

"Melody?" Rose sounded bewildered, but not completely shocked. Like she knew the woman. But that wasn't possible. Was it?

The Doctor stared at Rose. How did she know River? And by Melody, too?

"Hello, Doctor. Hello Rose. Oh, it's been too long." The two women rushed to embrace each other.

"Melody, I had no idea that you knew the Doctor! I mean, I didn't know him back then, but still! Wow!" Rose was beaming at the other woman like she was her sister, and the Doctor was utterly confused.

"Am I missing something?" River rolled her eyes.

"Obviously, sweetie. Rose and I go way back." Rose nodded, still smiling.

"How? And I swear to god, River Song, if you say 'spoilers' I will personally ensure that you go back to Stormcage and stay there for a long time!" River smiled sweetly.

"No need. This is something I can actually tell you. And...let me guess, you just got out of that hotel of fear, yes? That's what future you told me last week, anyways. So that means that we're in sync for once. Good. Rose, would you like to tell your dear boyfriend how we met?"

"River was in some of my A-levels. We were great friends, back then. She was the only one who didn't try to stop me dating Jimmy Stone-" That name jolted the Doctor, and he remembered that Rose had been in an abusive relationship before John. That made him angry. No one had the right to hurt his Rose like that. Rose finished her sentence without noticing-or pretending not to notice-the Doctor's reaction. "Maybe because she _knew _that if I didn't drop my A-levels, I never woulda met you!" She said it teasingly, but there was an undercurrent of resentment. Not much, but he could tell that Rose wasn't happy that she had to drop out. He could understand that, and hopefully so could River. He stopped worrying when he saw River wrap an arm around her friend's shoulders and whisper something, likely an apology, into her ear. Rose smiled at the other woman.

"S'not your fault. And I can't be mad at you; you were always there for me. Whenever I needed a shoulder to cry on. So thanks for that." River smiled.

"Anytime, sweetie." River turned to the Doctor, who was feeling a little left out. "I'm sure you're wondering why I'm here, Doctor. There was another thing you told me. You said that I should come to you now, because you were going to need all he support you could get. And you told me to make you say thank you when it's over because, apparently, I deserve it. You might just learn a thing or two in the future." This didn't clear up any questions that the Doctor had, but he wouldn't get anything else from River, he knew.

"That sounds ominous. You sure I didn't tell you anything else?" He asked. River shook her head.

"Now, go away and let me and Rose catch up. Girl talk-I know you hate it." He glared at River, while Rose snickered.

"If you don't recall, _you_ interrupted _us_. We were in the middle of something before you decided to flash in here!" He said indignantly. River smirked at him.

"Oh, I know. Now go!" The Doctor knew better than to argue with his friend on something like this. The Doctor walked out of the console room only to find Jack peeking through the doorway, staring at River Song.

"Jack! Were you standing there the whole time? No, don't answer that; I know you were." He grabbed Jack by the collar of his WW11 jacket and started to haul him down the corridor with no problem.

"Who was that _beauty_, Doctor? Is she taken? I couldn't get a view of her left hand."

"That was Dr. River Song, an old friend of mine, and you're free to have her, as far as I know." The Doctor couldn't bring himself to care enough to chastise Jack for spying. He was Jack, after all.

He and Jack headed to the kitchen. Neither of them had eaten since the day before, and even though the Doctor didn't need to, he humored Jack and ate some of the-admittedly very good- tacos he made. The Doctor didn't even know Jack could cook, much less make something like tacos so perfectly.

"So when are you going to tell her, Doc? I mean, from what you told me, it's almost exactly what that John did to her. You took the DNA sample and now you won't tell her what the results are." The Doctor, who was sitting across from the immortal, looked at him evenly.

"I'm not telling her because there are no results yet. Her DNA is still changing. She's not Time Lord, but her DNA is infused with so much more time energy than a normal human time traveller. It's because she looked into the heart of my TARDIS, I know that much, but beyond that it's a dead end. It's going to take me a while to identify what it is, but I can only begin to do that once the DNA stops changing." Jack shrugged.

"Okay, but don't you think that she deserves to know that she's not fully human anymore? I know it took me a long time to adjust to the fact that I couldn't die. I even tried killing myself once, and it didn't work. That's how I started to accept myself. Do you really want Rose to o through something like that?" The Doctor sighed. Of course he didn't.

"Well, what do you propose I say to her? It's not like I can walt in there and say 'Oh, hey, Rose, you're not human. That's cool!' and expect her to be happy with it. Like you said, she's going to need time to adjust. So how about we just take them all back to Earth, send of the Ponds like the happy family they are, and tell Rose somewhere quiet, okay?" Jack nodded, then furrowed his brow.

"The Ponds? What about that River?" He said her name flirtatiously, even though she wasn't in the room.

"River is Rory and Amy's daughter from the future. Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. You get used to it." Jack looked a little put out.

"Do you think they'll have a problem with me hitting on their daughter?"

"I think Amy will slap you until she kills you, then wait for you to come back, and then do it again." The Doctor snickered. Jack seemed to be contemplating that.

"I can handle that. I could definitely handle that." The Doctor shook his head. Leave it to Jack to consider that.

Rory joined them about a minute after that. Apparently his wife had joined River and Rose and he couldn't stand to be in the room with them. He did say something about them comparing notes on traveling with the Doctor, which the Time Lord in question didn't know whether to be flattered or insulted by. He decided to be flattered, it was a lot easier. Jack started asking him questions about River, which Rory answered with some reluctance, claiming that 'Amy would kill me for telling you any of this'. It was very amusing to watch, or so the Doctor thought.

The three women returned some time later to find Rory asleep with his head on the kitchen table and the Doctor and Jack playing a game of cards with a 51st century deck the Doctor had found in one of the many drawers of the TARDIS's kitchen. He saw them staring at him and smirked.

"Jack suggested strip poker but that was before Rory fell asleep and I didn't think Amy would be too happy with that." He looked up before he played his hand and was a little surprised to see the way River was staring at Jack. He was not surprised, however, to see the way Jack was staring at River.

"Captain Jack Harkness, and who are _you_?" River smirked as the Doctor leaned over and swatted Jack on the arm.

"Doctor River Song. You did try to get me to change my name to Harkness, but that didn't go over well." She held up her left hand, revealing a gold ring, and the Doctor, Rose, and Amy's jaws dropped. Jack just smirked.

"Of course I would. I'm assuming that we're married? Unless you know another dashingly handsome man by the name of Harkness, which is highly unlikely, seeing as I'm sexier than all of them." River winked.

"Spoilers!" she replied.

The Doctor abruptly stood up and walked to the doorway. "So, I was thinking an nice trip to Earth would be good for all of us. Ponds-someone wake Rory up please- we can take you back to Leadworth, and Rose, Jack, and I need to talk." Rose shot him a confused look, and he tried to give her a reassuring one in return. He wasn't sure he succeeded. But they woke Rory up, and he agreed, so the Doctor set the coordinates and safely (but with a bit of help from River and Rose) navigated them to the hometown of Amy and Rory.

"Rose, I didn't know you could fly the TARDIS." The Doctor commented, even though he knew how she had gained those skills.

"Yeah, neither did I. You said that we had to talk?" Rose looked nervous, and he couldn't blame her. He was probably more nervous than she was. The Amy and Rory took River on a tour of the town, he supposed. He wasn't quite sure how that would work (it was quite a small town) but he was glad that they were being left alone.

"Yeah. Um, why don't we sit down somewhere? You might not want to be standing for this." The Doctor winced. That sounded ominous. He steered his two friends towards one of the many benches that were on the roads of Leadworth and the tree of them sat down with Rose in the middle.

"Doctor, what's going on? What aren't you telling me?" The Doctor looked at Jack, who nodded at him to tell her.

"Rose, you remember when you looked into the heart of the TARDIS, yes? Well, ever since then, the Time energy-" The Doctor never got to tell Rose what the Time energy was doing to her, because he was cut off by a scream he'd recognize anywhere.

"Doctor!" Cried the voice of Amy Pond. "Doctor, help!" And then there was nothing. Utter and complete silence.

* * *

Amy stepped out of the TARDIS feeling lighter than she had in days. There had been a lot of stress since they had found Rose lying in the TARDIS, and just sitting and talking with Rose and River helped her unwind a lot.

"Come on, River, let's show you Leadworth." Amy steered her husband and daughter away from the other three, sensing that they needed some privacy. She and Rory took River to see the hospital where Rory worked to discover that it had only been a day since they had left. Then they headed towards the old house where Amy had grown up. They walked through the garden, where Amy was assaulted by memories.

"That's the shed the Doctor broke when he crashed here the first time. I thought that he was a policeman, but I was only seven." Amy walked up to the front door and pushed it open. Her house was exactly like she remembered, but something felt...wrong. She motioned for Rory and River to stay back and started up the stairs. When she reached the landing, she took one look around and immediately ran back down.

"Run! Get out!" She called to Rory and River, but she felt something grab her from the back of the neck before she could reach them,

"Doctor! Doctor, help!" She screamed as loud as she could, and then everything went dark.

**I don't really like this chapter, but I'm going to give it to you anyways. Please review and give me any feedback! Also, check out my one shot about Rose and the Meta-crisis called A New Memory, which you can find on my home page. Love you all!**


	9. I Am The Wolf

**Edit: I'm really sorry for the way the ending of this turned out before, but I've gone back and fixed it. Hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who, Rose and the Doctor would get married and have lots of little Time Babies running around the TARDIS.**

Chapter 8: I Am The Wolf

The Doctor started running. He had no idea what he was getting himself and his friends into, but he had to help Amy. Amy, who was with Rory and River. All of them were probably in danger. Rose and Jack were right behind him, but the Doctor paid them no attention as he ran towards the old house that he had first met Amelia in. He knew that's where the cry had come from. The Doctor knew that he'd still have to explain to Rose what the Time energy in her DNA meant, but for now he welcomed the distraction, even if it was his best friends being put in danger.

"Doctor! Are we just going to run straight in there? We might get killed!" Rose called out from behind him. The Doctor slowed his pace when he rounded the corner. She was right. He had to think, to learn what had happened and think of a plan. Unfortunately, time was one thing he was sure they didn't have. He stopped when he reached the door of Amy's old house. The door was open about three inches and hung loosely from its hinges. The wind was strong enough that, every time there was a gust, the door was pushed back an inch or so, then swung back. It creaked ominously as the Doctor pushed the old door open.

There was sign of an obvious struggle, but there was nothing that gave him a clue of where his friends had gone. Not on the landing, anyways.

"Doctor, what happened?" Jack asked quietly from behind him. The Doctor started up the stairs slowly, looking for something to give him a clue.

"I don't know, Jack. They were taken, but I don't know where or by whom." The three of them reached the second floor and the Doctor started searching the room. "Oh, that's very bad! I don't know how bad but it is definitely three bus rides, a long walk, and a taxi from good." In his peripheral vision, he saw Jack shoot a look at Rose, who shrugged.

"What's bad? Do you know who took them?" The Doctor turned to face her, his face grave.

"Oh yes. And when I find them, they will learn the hard way to never, ever, mess with my friends." He held up the vortex manipulator he had found lying on a table. "Recognize this, Jack?" Jack nodded. "We're going to the Time Agency." He grabbed Rose's hand, and Jack grabbed her other one. She grinned at him, that tongue-in-teeth smile he loved so much.

"Allons-y?" She asked him. He grinned back at her.

"No. Geronimo!" And he pressed the button.

The Doctor opened his eyes to see a half dozen] men and women in military uniforms pointing guns at his chest. He put his hands up, and motioned for his companions to do the same.

"Doctor..." He heard Jack say uneasily, so quietly only the Doctor and Rose could hear. "Third man to your left." The Doctor moved his gaze to the man Jack had pointed out. There, pointing a gun at the Doctor with his eyes locked onto Jack's, was Captain Harkness himself. He was younger, yes, but still easily recognizable.

"Doctor." Captain Harkness said evenly. He did not lower his gun. "I would ask why you are traveling with a future version of myself, but I would rather spare myself the paradox. Now, I'm sure you are wondering why you are here." The Doctor nodded and saw Rose scowling at their Jack, who was still frowning.

"You didn't tell us you were such a buzzkill, Jack. Embarrassed?" She smirked at him, and he gave her a tense smile before locking eyes with his past self.

"What's the date, _Captain_?" He said the title mockingly, like he knew something everyone else didn't. Which he probably did, seeing as he once was the man before him. The Captain glared at him before telling his future self the date. Jack nodded thoughtfully. "Okay. That explains it." Captain Harkness frowned at him.

"Explains what, exactly?" The Doctor was watching the exchange silently. He thought he already knew what their Jack was going to say. He lowered his hands and laced his fingers with Rose's once she did the same.

"Why I can't remember having this conversation. In about a day, you're gonna wake up and the last thing you're going to remember is going to be that strip club from 3140 you went to about two years ago." The Doctor shot a look at his companion.

"Jack, you should probably shut up now. I can read timelines and yours is still fixed, but that could change with any word that comes out of your mouth." He warned, and Rose gripped his hand tighter. Jack nodded.

"Private Bennet, take the girl to her cell. You know what to do once you get there. Private Farrow, take my future self to another cell. If he resists, shoot him." Jack gave his future self a wry smile.

"I hated you even when I _was_ you, you bastard." Captain Harkness apparently didn't like that, and the Doctor winced at what he knew was coming. The Captain lifted his gun, which he had lowered at some point in the conversation, and shot Jack through the heart with apparently no remorse or concerns that he had just ended his own life. Jack collapsed onto the floor, a small smile still on his face. The Doctor glanced at Rose, who rolled her eyes.

"I swear, one day that man is going to be the death of me." Captain Harkness looked between the two of them in confusion. "He's giving you too much foreknowledge. He just sent your timeline into flux. Not a lot, but enough. Just give him a minute and you'll see why." The Doctor offered as an explanation. The Captain just looked really confused.

Just then, a loud, gasping breath came from the floor. "God, Doc, no matter how many times I die in front of you, you never even ask if I'm okay. How's that for a friend?" The Captain's jaw dropped and Jack smirked at him.

"Because you know I really don't need to. Also, you just sent your timeline into flux. Happy, Harkness?" Jack looked thoughtful.

"No, not particularly. I mean, we are at the Time Agency." Captain Harkness looked shocked still, but the soldiers he had ordered were standing to his side, ready to shoot any of the three people in front of them.

"Captain? Do we restrain the other two?" The Captain seemed to shake himself out of his stupor and nodded. The Doctor clung tighter to Rose's hand, but the female soldier yanked Rose's hand out of his grasp.

"Doctor? Doctor, what do we do?" Rose sounded scared as the woman restrained her hands. He grabbed Roses shoulders and kissed her quickly.

"Don't panic. Stay calm. I will find you." And then he was forced back by another soldier and Rose was led away. "Jack?"

"Yes, Doc?" Jack replied, still getting secured by the third soldier.

"Don't get killed too many times, and no me?"

"Yes, Doc. Anyways, I'm a married man. Or I will be, anyways. Say 'hi' to River for me if you see her first." And with that Jack was lead away none to gently by another soldier. The Doctor turned to Captain Harkness, who was staring after his future self.

"He sent my timeline into flux, yes?" The Doctor nodded. "I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"It depends on how you look at it. I would say that Rose and I were the best thing to ever happen to you, and so would your future self. But you, you might not think so, from the outside looking in. Now, take me to your leader. I'm sure you brought me here for a reason, Captain." Harkness nodded.

"Secure him." He barked at the remaining two soldiers. They cuffed the Doctor, who did little to resist. "Come with me, Doctor. My supervisors would like to have a word with you." The Doctor followed the man through the chamber door and into a brightly lit military corridor. Whoever the supervisors were, he had a feeling that he would not like them one bit. He bit his tongue. No good would come from running his mouth to the man who was not the Jack he knew.

* * *

Rose was led from the large, obviously military chamber through several long corridors. The lights had gradually grown dimmer as she and her escort moved along the hallways. The soldier was silent as they walked, and Rose figured that it would be pointless to ask questions. They finally stopped in front of a door that was most likely her cell.

"What have we done? Why were we brought here?" She asked the woman, hoping she might get at least something. The soldier-Private Bennet, Captain Harkness had called her-did not make eye contact.

"We need the Doctor, and the only way to get him to help is to hold something over his head." Bennet finally looked Rose square in the eye then, and Rose knew that whatever was coming wasn't going to be fun. Bennet's eyes held regret and compassion. What could make a Time Agent-a soldier-feel that for a prisoner? "I'm very sorry, Miss. But we have to do this." Bennet swung the door open and led Rose inside.

The room held nothing but a metal chair that vaguely reminded Rose of an electric chair, and sent chills up her spine. There were cuffs on the arms and legs of the chair, and she had a pretty good idea of who they were for. On the wall facing the chair, there was a large screen, and on the left hand wall there was a large mirror, which Rose figured was a one-way window. Bennet led her over to the chair, and Rose sat down without resistance. It would just hurt her more to try. Bennet exited the room after pressing a few buttons on a controller at her side.

The metal cuffs clicked into place around her wrists and ankles, and Rose flexed them to see how much leeway she had. Not much, apparently. Before she could do much else, the screen in front of her flickered to life to show the Doctor, flanked by two soldiers and the Captain. He was standing in front of a large desk, where a man Rose had never seen before sat. The Doctor obviously recognized him, because he was glaring at the man like he was the cause of all the corruption in the universe. The Doctor's wrists were straining against the handcuffs and he looked ready to launch himself at the strange man.

"Master." The Doctor's voice came from the speakers, low and menacing. "I should have known you would survive. Though I must ask you how you did it. The last time I saw you you were getting pulled into the Time Lock. What happened, Koschei?" The last sentence was taunting, like the Doctor was invoking a name that hadn't been used in centuries.

"Oh, I got pulled into a parallel universe. One that I believe you are intimately acquainted with."

Rose stiffened in her restraints. It couldn't be. "And I met an old friend of yours. At first I thought that he was you, and I tried to kill him. But then he told me the story of how you created, abandoned, and destroyed him. You took away his love. Is't that right, John?" The man, the Master, called towards the door behind him. Rose couldn't breathe. _He can't be here he was in the parallel world. How could he be here? Please, God, don't let John be here!_ She watched the screen without blinking as the door swung open and the man she had spent five horrible years of her life with stepped through it.

The Doctor growled and lunged at him, but the two soldiers held him back, though they just barely managed to restrain him in time. John Noble-Smith chuckled darkly and went to stand at the Master's side, then pulled up a chair and sat next to him. Rose tried to breathe, to relax, but it wasn't possible. John was back. John is back and he's going to hurt me again. Please don't let him hurt me, Doctor.

"Indeed, Master. So we made a dimension jumper and came back home. Unfortunately, we landed in the wrong time and since neither of us has a TARDIS, we had to...ah, reshape Torchwood. That took us about two years or so, and now we finally have the perfect bait. The Doctor's friends, and the woman he loves. _My_ woman. The Master has promised that he'll spare Rose, and she can be mine again. But first, we need you to do something for us." The two men sat back and smirked at the Doctor. He glared at them in turn and Rose waited tensely for his response.

"Why would I ever help you? The man who hurt my Rose beyond belief and my once-was best friend who's been trying to off me for a couple hundred years? In your dreams." Rose smiled a little, but it was soon wiped off her face when the Master spoke again.

"Well, in case you haven't forgotten, we still have your friends. And since pretty little Rose is right through that door over there, if you don't cooperate, I'll send John in with her to have a little fun. Does that sound good to you?" The Master asked, a taunting smirk on his face. Rose's eyes widened. He wouldn't, would he? But she took one look at the screen, into that madman's eyes, and knew that if the Doctor didn't do it he would have no qualms about orchestrating her torture.

"And what exactly is it you need me to do?" The Doctor asked in a controlled voice. Rose exhaled in relief. She didn't want the Doctor to help these madmen in whatever they were trying to accomplish, but the thought of John being able to hurt her again was terrifying.

"Oh, nothing much. Just...we need your TARDIS, all the vortex manipulators available to the Time Agency, and Rose. Not too much to ask, yes?" The Doctor shook his head.

"No deal. I'm not letting you take Rose. And you won't be getting my TARDIS, I put a defense mechanism in her. You shouldn't be allowed to have the Vortex Manipulators either, but that's not up to me. Now, let me go." John smirked, glancing at the Master.

"May I, Master?" He asked in a singsong voice. The Master smiled cruelly and nodded. He picked up a remote and pressed a few buttons. Rose saw another screen appear on the wall of the room the Doctor was in, and the image on it didn't really surprise her. It was herself, strapped to the chair, with an expression of fear on her face. When she saw that, she started to cry. She had been holding back tears for a minute or so, but when faced with the reality that she was going to be tortured and the Doctor would be forced to watch, they spilled over.

"Observe, Doctor. This is what happens when you refuse us." Rose knew what would happen if the Master or John got their hands on the TARDIS, so she tried to pull herself together. She figured that there would be speakers in her room as well and tried to locate the camera. Staring straight at the space she thought it was, she spoke through her tears.

"Doctor, don't let them get to the TARDIS. I'll be okay, just don't help them." On the screen, the Doctor turned and looked to pinpoint the sound.

"Rose! Rose, hold on, I'll get you out of there!" The Master chuckled.

"Doubtful. John, go ahead and greet dear Rose. I believe she's waiting for her husband." John grinned and turned towards another doorway. Rose heard the doorknob turn from behind her, and tensed in fear. This was actually happening. The door behind her opened, and she heard soft footsteps she remembered so well.

"Hello, Rose. Long time, no see." She heard the voice from behind her and let another tear slip down her face.

"John." She choked out. He came into view and Rose shivered. There was a look of pure malice on his face, and there was cruelty mixed with the slightest bit of lust shining in his eyes. Eyes that, on another man, once shone with kindness and mirth. "John, please. Please don't." She hated that the Doctor had to hear her beg. John just smirked.

"I love it when you beg. Do you know he did, too? And I'm willing to bet he still does." She shook her head. He told her things like this to get under her skin, but they weren't true. She had almost believed it back in the parallel world, but now that she was back with her Doctor, she knew that they had been lies all along. John took a small remote from his pocket and showed her the face of it. "This, Rosie, controls the voltage of that chair you're sitting in. Feel free to scream as much as you'd like." Rose tensed, and John pressed a button on the controller.

Pain. It was the only thing she was aware of. There was pain coursing through her veins, reaching every corner of her body. There was a far off screaming, and she wondered vaguely through the fog in her head who it was. Her eyes were open, but all she could see was the white of the walls and a hazy form standing in front of her. Who was it? She couldn't remember. The agony increased, and finally her vision started going dark around the edges. She was just slipping into a pool of blackness when the force driving the pain stopped. Electricity still crackled under her skin, but the voltage had stopped. Slowly and ever so painfully, Rose reopened her eyes, unaware of when they had shut.

"Was that fun, Rose?" The man in front of her asked patronizingly. Doctor? No, no. John. The meta-crisis. She moaned in pain. "See, Doctor? This is what we can do to your love." Rose's vision was clear now, and she looked towards the screen to see the Doctor on his knees, hands still cuffed behind his back, with tears streaming down his face.

"Doctor." She groaned. John turned fast as lightning and backhanded her across the face. Rose heard the smack before she felt the impact, but when she did, she gasped in pain.

"He is not here. _I_ am here, Rose, and you will say _my_ name. He can't help you now, and I doubt he even wants to." Rose sobbed. "Tell me my name, Rose." She shook her head. She had promised herself never again. "TELL ME!" He bellowed.

"J-John." She stammered.

"Good. Who do you belong to?" He asked her just loud enough for the microphones to pick up. She kept her eyes shut and refused to answer. Then she felt his hands on her thighs. Her eyes flew open to see his face inches from hers.

"No. No, please, no!" She whimpered, but John closed the distance between them and pressed his lips to hers violently. She did not reciprocate, and tried to keep her mouth closed, but his hands moved down to her inner thighs and she gasped. He took control of her mouth then, and Rose fought the urge to scream. She couldn't let him do this.

Rose felt her rage swell up in her chest, and in that tight ball of anger she sensed a great, angry power that she had only felt once before: at the Game Station. She felt the power start to manifest under her skin, a different kind of electricity from before. The power that she knew was the Bad Wolf pulsed in her veins, and she opened her eyes. John went flying back, hitting the screen on the opposite wall and collapsing in a heap. The cuffs holding her disintegrated into golden dust, and the woman stood up with confidence.

* * *

Rose was lost, and standing in her place was the Wolf, ready to protect her no-longer-human child from harm. Rose was aware of herself this time, yet not in control. It felt vaguely like the time Cassandra had possessed her body, but the Wolf was comforting and felt more like an extension of Rose's brain, a personality she had only worn once. The Wolf turned her eyes on the human-Time Lord hybrid responsible for so much of her sister's pain.

"You will never hurt Rose Tyler again." The Wolf said firmly, but without malice. With a wave of her hand, she sent John to the TARDIS where she knew her Doctor could deal with him as he saw fit. Rose was screaming at the Wolf that it was a bad idea, that the Doctor would lose control and kill John.

_Have faith in our Doctor, sister. He is stronger than you think, especially with us by his side. _The Wolf replied to her sister.

_But I don't want to see him hurting like that. You must have seen his face when John came in. He's so full of rage and pain, I'm afraid he'll hurt himself without meaning to. _Rose replied more softly.

_He is more afraid of losing us than you think. He will do nothing that he believes would drive you away. He does not believe that we will never go. We will not leave him nor our other sister for a very long time._ The Wolf said to Rose, who seemed confused.

_Our other sister? Do you mean the TARDIS?_

_Yes. Though she is more like you than you know. Feel inside yourself, Rose Tyler, feel inside this body. She has given you something to share with her Thief, something truly amazing. Try to feel it._

There was silence from Rose, and the Wolf came back into reality. Walking through the doorway, which she unlocked with no more than a thought. Her eyes immediately sought the Doctor, who was still kneeling and staring listlessly at the screen in front of him, which had been filled with static. His face was dripping with tears, and when he heard the door opening, he turned so fast that he almost toppled over. His face filled with horror as he caught sight of the Wolf; no doubt he thought that his precious Rose was dying, consumed by the vortex. The Master was staring at her in shock, no doubt wondering what on Gallifrey was going on.

"I am the Bad Wolf. I have the power of Time itself, and I am more powerful than you can imagine, Time Lord." Her words were directed at the Master, but the Wolf saw the Doctor flinch and immediately felt bad. Not wishing to deal with the Master, she sent him to the TARDIS with John. She turned to the Doctor and removed his restraints.

"Rose, what have you done?" He asked frantically, drying his face with the back of his hands.

"I am the Wolf, and extension of Rose Tyler. Do not fear, Doctor, she is well. Her body, as you well know, is no longer human and was, in essence, designed to contain my power. You have our sister to thank for that." The Doctor nodded, though he still looked worried. "I will erase the last two years, as you did with the Year That Never Was, and only Jack Harkness will remember them. Or, to be more specific, he will remember not remembering them"

"You're playing with things you shouldn't, Wolf. This is dangerous." The Doctor said, looking at her warily. The Wolf smiled sadly at him.

"You think I don't know that, Doctor? But I am a part of Rose, and I can see all the possibilities around your timelines-more so than even you." And it was true; the Wolf knew what could come, and she knew that she had no right to divulge any information. "And you know I cannot tell you." The Doctor smiled grimly.

"Of course. Can you bring back my friends? And fix Jack?" The Wolf shook her head.

"I can bring them to you, but the fate of Jack Harkness is beyond my control now. What's done is done."

"Of course. Do it now, please." The Wolf nodded, and with a thought brought Amy, Rory, River and Jack into the room with them.

"Rose? Rosie, are you okay?" Jack, who along with River was used to traveling without a capsule. "Why are you glowing?" The Wolf turned to him and smiled.

"I am the Wolf, and I have the power of Time. Rose, my sister, has called on me once before, this you know, and we are now one. Jack, River Song, use your Vortex Manipulators-" which she had returned to them when bringing them here- "and return to the TARDIS. The Doctor and Rose will meet you there."

The others were looking around in confusion, but Jack held out his arm to River, and she took it along with her mother's hand, who was holding Rory's with her other. With a flash of blue light, the four were gone.

The Wolf concentrated. She had just enough power to get her and the Doctor back to their own time stream. Jack hit the button on his vortex manipulator and the four of them transported back to the correct time. The Wolf turned to the Doctor.

"I'm sorry for scaring you. The Master and John are in a holding cell on the TARDIS, though I would advise dealing with them tomorrow. And I have told Rose about her DNA change, though the TARDIS and I have sped it up somewhat in the last few minutes. Tomorrow you will awake and Rose will be fully Gallifreyan."

"Why would you do this? Take away Rose's humanity?" The Doctor asked in a pleading voice. He knew that Rose treasured her humanity above all else, and the Wolf suspected that he would let the woman he loved grow old and die if it meant that she would be happy.

"Because this is what Rose wants. She wants to give you forever."

_Thank you._ Rose's voice echoed in the Wolf's mind. _Thank you for everything. You can take us home now, Wolf._

_You're welcome, sister. And know that I am always within you should you need to call upon me again._

_I know._ The Wolf closed her eyes and felt a rush as they transported back to their own time stream. She relinquished control of Rose's body and retreated to her mind, content with her actions.

* * *

"Rose? Are you okay?" Rose opened her eyes to see The Doctor and her friends staring at her with concern. She smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit tired, 's all." They made their way back to the TARDIS while Rose and the Doctor explained what had happened to them, leaving out most of the graphic parts.

"They just held us all in the same cell and wouldn't let us talk. I tried once or twice and they short me. Killed me dead." Jack recounted. "Scared the poor Ponds half to death. Sorry, by the way. I would have warned you, but there was the whole no-talking thing." Amy punched him in the shoulder, and he rubbed it ruefully. "Jeez, woman. You can hit!"

"Apology accepted. But I still don't like you." Amy told him, and Jack winked at her.

"Sure you don't, doll." River nudged him.

"Sweetie, I know you can't help yourself, but do try not to flirt with the in-laws." Jack blushed.

"Sorry." Rose and the Doctor chuckled at that. They entered the TARDIS, and River agreed to stay the night, leading Jack away with no trouble at all. Rose chuckled at their retreating backs, hoping the TARDIS would soundproof their room. She didn't realize that the ship had heard her until the console gave a hum and Rose felt a tingling of assent in her mind.

"Thanks, sister." She stroked the railing tenderly. She noticed the Doctor giving her an odd look.

"I guess we're connected now, the TARDIS and me. Even more so than before." The Doctor smiled.

"Just one more thing I love about you, Rose." The Ponds bid them a good night, and soon enough the two were alone in the console room. Rose sat down in one of the chairs littering the console room, while the Doctor tinkered underneath. They were enjoying the comfortable silence until the TARDIS started playing 'Moonlight Serenade.' Rose laughed as the Doctor leapt up from under the controls and pulled her out of the chair, dancing ridiculously the whole time.

They danced for a long time, moving from Moonlight Serenade to slow, sweet, romantic songs. The lights dimmed, and Rose leaned her head against her Doctor's chest. They weren't dancing so much as swaying, now, and Rose smiled.

"Doctor..." Rose whispered, tilting her head to look up at him. "I love you." He smiled at her.

"And I love you, Rose Tyler. But I can't stand it when you call me that." She furrowed her brow in confusion.

"But that's your name." The Doctor shook his head. Still holding her and moving slowly with the music.

"No, it's not. And I can't tell you my real name for now, but there was a name I was called when I was younger I would like you to call me."

"And what's that, then?" Rose felt honored that he trusted her enough to tell her his childhood nickname, and vowed that she would try to show him how much he meant to her.

"Theta, is what my friends called me back on Gallifrey. Theta Sigma." Rose smiled. It seemed to fit him, and it felt more personal than just 'Doctor'.

"Theta Sigma. Well then, Theta. I love you." He pulled her up against him and kissing her sweetly. She did not break away, and soon the kiss was passionate and heated, practically begging for more.

"Should we take this to my bedroom?" Theta asked her quietly, kissing her neck.

"Are you asking to take me to bed?" She said, gasping, marveling at what he was doing with his tongue.

"Yes, I suppose I am, Rose Tyler. What do you say?" She pulled his head up and looked her Doctor, Theta Sigma, in the eye.

"I say yes."

**Edit: Okay, that's much better. I want to thank all of you who reviewed, you're all amazing. I hope I wrapped this up a bit better; I wanted to do more with John and the Master but ti was 12:30 and I just wanted to finish that night so you all got a crappy ending. Thanks for reading!**


	10. You Made Me

**Hello there, my lovely fans! Well, school has started and it completely sucks, so I will probably be updating on the weekends from now on. And I apologize for this coming so late; I had an extreme case of writer's block. Also, in the first bit of the chapter there are many implications of sexy stuff, so if you don't like, skip the first five to six paragraphs. Somehow I doubt most of you will.**

**IMPORTANT NOTE PLEASE READ: I just completely redid the last half of the last chapter, and changed some key plot points so go back and read that ASAP if you're following this and just read it chapter by chapter when they update (like me).**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who, Rose and the Doctor would get married and have lots of little Time Babies running around the TARDIS.**

Chapter 9: You Made Me

Rose woke up slowly. It was a feeling she hadn't had in a long time; she had been plagued by nightmares in Pete's world and the two times she had slept upon her return had been no different. But today she felt like she had slept deeply and peacefully, and if she had dreamed she did not remember. Rose stretched slowly and languorously, the satin sheet of a strangely unfamiliar bed falling down to her waist. It wasn't until her hand met bare flesh that she snapped her eyes open, remembering the events of the previous night. She flushed, pulling the sheet back up.

"How long have you been watching me sleep?" She asked teasingly. Rose knew that Time Lords needed little sleep, and felt bad if he had stayed in bed out of a sense of obligation. The Doctor-_Theta_, she reminded herself. That was what she had called him last night. Theta smiled and stroked her cheek.

"I've only been awake for a few minutes. We slept for about four hours. I suppose you don't need as much sleep as before, now that you've changed." He said softly, and Rose smiled at him. She wasn't sure how to feel about the whole 'changing' thing, but if it meant she could have forever with her Doctor, she would embrace it. "The Wolf told me to scan your species this morning. Should we do that, if you don't need to sleep anymore?" Rose considered for a moment.

"Why not? Let me just throw some clothes on." Theta smirked at her as she climbed out of the bed with the sheet still wrapped around her.

"What are you doing that for? I've already seen everything, Rose." He teased. She grinned back at him and yanked the TARDIS blue sheet off the bed completely and chuckling darkly while throwing on her jeans and shirt from the previous day as he scrambled to cover himself.

"What're you doing that for, Theta? I've already seen everything." Rose said as innocently as possible. He glared at her for a moment after retrieving his pants from the floor.

"Because...shut up, that's why!" Theta squawked indignantly, and Rose laughed. He finished dressing, forgetting his suspenders on the ground and just barely tying his bow tie before dragging Rose out of his, now their, bedroom. Her hands were linked with his and Rose laughed as he pulled her into the med bay and sat her down in a chair.

"Okay, this won't take a minute, but I need a blood sample, okay?" Rose nodded, and Theta walked over to a cabinet, removing what looked like a regular needle and anesthetic. "Look at me, not the needle." As he plunged the needle into the crook of her arm, Rose looked into the deep, eternal eyes of the man she loved. The pain was there and gone before she even really registered it, and Theta was placing the small vial of blood into a small, fancy machine that certainly hadn't been there the last time Rose had been in here.

They waited for maybe thirty seconds before the machine dinged and printed out a tiny slip of paper. Theta grabbed it and read it over three times before handing it to Rose. Before looking at it, she measured his expression. There was definitely suppressed excitement, but there was also concern, probably to how she would take the news. Rose steeled herself and looked down at her results.

**Species: 100% Gallifreyan  
Sub-species: Time Lord  
Mixture of: Time Lord, TARDIS**

Rose blinked, looked at the paper again, and then looked up at Theta. He looked like he was overjoyed but too concerned to show it. Rose let her face split into a wide grin, and his followed seconds after. She flung her arms around Theta's neck and he stood up and hugged her close.

"Theta, what does this mean? I'm not feeling any different, but it says here I'm a whole other species than I was yesterday." He put her down and the two walked to the console room, sitting side by side on the jump seat.

"Well, not necessarily. Yesterday, you were 80% TARDIS. Today, you're Time Lord. Also..." He trailed off for a moment, seemingly distracted by something in his mind. "Well, there will be some physical as well as mental changes. For one, I want you to try something." Rose nodded, having somewhat of an idea where this was going. "Place your hand on the left side of your chest." She did as she was told, feeling the even beating of her heart. "Now, place your other hand on the right side of your chest." She did, and was not wholly surprised to find another solid heartbeat.

"How did I not notice that earlier?" She asked. It was a rhetorical question, but Theta opened his mouth to answer anyways. Rose smiled and placed a finger to his lips. "Shush. Tell me more about the changes." He nodded, kissing her finger lightly.

"Well, two hearts, so you'll have better stamina, not that you really need it from what I can tell." She smirked at him and he winked back. "How else do you think I kept up? Anyways, back on track: you have a respiratory bypass system, so you could probably not breathe for up to...oh, sixteen minutes, I'd say. My record is thirty-five, but I've had over nine hundred years of practice. That's about everything important, physically." He paused for a moment, and Rose leaned in and kissed him again, trying to soothe his obvious nerves. She lost herself in the kiss for a moment, then pulled back.

"You don't have to tell me." But she knew he did.

"Your mind...it's now much more perceptive. You've always been a bit telepathic, though it was mostly empathy and I'm sure neither of us realized it at the time. Now, unless you learn to block it off, you'll be bombarded with the thoughts and emotions of those around you. I could help with that, teach you how to master it. But...there's something else. Something that Time Lords did, Rose. Something I've never done." He fell silent, and Rose took his hand in hers.

"The bond. John mentioned it once. Is that what you do? Form a mental connection?" Theta's eyes had been downcast, not really looking at anything in particular, but when Rose said that he lifted them to hers.

"Yes, that's what some of us did when we really cared about those chosen for us. But I never felt that with my mate. We never even told each other our true names." Rose nodded sympathetically. "But I would bond with you in a heartbeat, Rose. Because I love you and I always have and I always will."

"Then why don't we? If I'm mentally capable and we both want to, why don't we?" Theta beamed at her for a moment, then faltered.

"It's a lot like marriage, Rose, but infinitely more personal. I would literally be in your head at all times, and you in mine. We wouldn't be able to hide anything from each other without an extreme amount of concentration all the time. For someone who has been human most of her life, it might seem like an extreme invasion of privacy. And if you didn't want it, if you chose to leave, I would have to let you go. I would have to because you mean so much to me and I don't want to break that. " Rose grinned and pressed her forehead to his. She could feel his consciousness tickling at the back of her mind, along with River, Jack, Amy, and Rory.

"Since when have we ever cared about privacy, Theta? I'm never, ever gonna leave you. And you said to me once, that your mind felt so empty without the rest of your species. Couldn't I help with that?" Theta smiled, still resting his head against hers.

"Rose Tyler, always so selfless. I suppose that we could, yes. Definitely. But not here, not now. I want it to be special." Rose grinned and flung her arms around him, kissing him solidly.

"Theta Sigma, I think I'm in love with you." She grinned wildly. "Now, let me go change and wake the others up. I think we might have a little announcement to make."

* * *

Amy woke up when the Doctor flung open the door to her and Rory's room, grinning like a maniac.

"Doctor, what the hell are you doing in here?" The Doctor didn't answer, instead walking over to the bed and shaking Rory awake.

"Up, Ponds! Into the console room with the two of you, Rose and I will meet you there!" He bounded out of the room like he was the happiest man in the universe. Rory sat up in bed groggily and looked at Amy in bewilderment.

"What was that all bout?" He asked, and Amy shook her head.

"I've no idea, but I think we should get to the console room as fast as possible."

When Amy and her husband finally got to the console room, they were not particularly surprised to find Jack and River already there and chatting with Rose while the Doctor ran madly around the console, flipping switches and pressing buttons.

"We're taking you home, Ponds! Back to prison for River Song, and our dear Captain Jack can go home safe and sound to his Torchwood team. Sound good?" Amy looked at Rory in dismay. He was just going to drop them off at home like they'd shared a cab? Rose walked over to Amy and took her hand.

"It's not that we don't want you here, Amy, we really do. But Theta...the Doctor...and I need some time alone, just to relax and get reacquainted. And," Rose dropped her voice to a whisper and leaned into Amy's ear. "Don't tell anyone, but we need to plan the wedding." Amy had to physically restrain herself from shrieking and throwing her arms around the Doctor's neck. Rose smiled knowingly and moved back to her fiancee-_fiancee_!

"Alright, Doctor. But promise that you and Rose will come back to visit soon." The Doctor smiled and took Rose's hand.

"Pinky promise, Amelia."

All too soon, Amy and Rory stepped out of the TARDIS and into their new house, and Amy could finally tell Rory what Rose had told her.

"The Doctor's getting married." She said nonchalantly as soon as Rory sat down with a glass of soda. His eyes widened and the fizzy drink came up and out of his nose. Amy cracked up. SHe knew it was mean, but she couldn't help herself.

"_What_? To who?" Her husband practically shouted. "Rose?" She rolled her eyes.

"No, stupid face, Jack. Of course Rose!" Rory grinned sheepishly and wiped off his shirt.

"That was cruel, Amy. Do you think they'll invite us to the wedding?"

"If they don't they'll both have hell to pay the next time we see them." Amy got up to check the mail, wondering how long exactly they had been gone. She was surprised to see two TARDIS blue envelopes on the top of the stack. The first was blank on the outside, but the second had both their names written in curling script on the outside. She picked up the one that was addressed to them and inspected it carefully.

"Rory, come here." Rory walked over to her and looked over the envelopes without saying a word. Finally, he opened his mouth.

"What are they? Did you open them?"

"Of course not." Amy felt slightly stupid for not just reading the thing. "You should do the first one." Rory flipped the envelope over to see their names written in a curling script on the front. Slowly, he opened the envelope and took out the singular white piece of paper. Amy read aloud over his shoulder.

"We are pleased to invite you to the wedding of Rose Tyler and the Doctor on the twenty-first of February, 2011. Transportation has been arranged, for the hosts would like to keep the location secret. Comfortable shoes are required, formal dress is not." Amy leaned against her husband.

"Well, I guess that answers one question. Where do you think the wedding will be?" She glanced at the calendar on the wall to see that it was January 27th.

"Your guess is as good as mine. A planet known for their weddings?" Amy shrugged.

"Well, at least we know we're going." She picked up the second envelope after speaking and carefully opened card inside held only a date and map coordinates.

"Well, it must be from the Doctor, the envelopes are identical." Rory commented. "So I suppose we're going, then." Amy smirked and kissed his cheek.

"Naturally."

* * *

Martha Jones always woke up early, however today was an exception. She and Mickey had taken a day off from UNIT for the first time in a year and she was planning on sleeping as much as she could. Mickey was still lying next to her, so she assumed he would take advantage of a late start as well. Checking her clock, she was surprised to see that the time was 10:43. Rolling out of bed without waking her husband, she went to check the mail.

The first thing she saw was an envelope that could only be described as TARDIS blue. On the front, the names _Martha Jones_ and _Mickey Smith_ were scrawled. Tearing open the letter, her eyes scanned the page.

"We are pleased to invite you..." And then she screamed in shock, staring at the paper in her hands. Thirty seconds later, Mickey was in front of her panting.

"What is it? Are you alright, Martha?" She looked up and nodded numbly.

"Read this." Is all she said, handing her husband the letter. He read it twice, looked at her, and read it again.

"What..._how_? Oh my god, they're getting married?"

"I know, it's so exciting!" She beamed at him. Mickey smiled back, but then his face fell.

"Martha, today, it's the twentieth." Her eyes widened. And they _couldn't_ have just taken tomorrow off instead. She groaned.

* * *

Alfie Owens went to check the mail. His mum was at work already, and his dad was still asleep, so the task fell to the fourteen year old to check the post and feed himself. Not that he minded, but still. They were his parents, weren't they supposed to take care of him.

The blue envelope was something of a surprise, though he didn't think much of it. It was addressed to his parents and someone called 'Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All.' Alfie tossed it on the kitchen table and went to make breakfast.

His dad came downstairs soon enough, and Alfie pointed the letter out to him. Craig Owens looked at the envelope oddly. He remembered the Doctor, so long ago, taking some envelopes that exact color. He opened it and stared in shock.

"No. No way. It's been fourteen years, no way he's inviting us." Alfie looked at his father in confusion.

"Dad, what's wrong?" Craig looked at his son.

"We're invited to a wedding, on the 21st of February, 2026." Alfie looked at him in confusion.

"All three of us? But it's just you and Mum and this 'Stormageddon' person." Craig grinned at his son.

"That's what you called yourself when you were little. This is from a great friend of your mum and me, and I thought we'd seen the last of him years ago." This did little to ease Alfie's confusion, but he just shrugged and went back to his cereal. He'd figure it out eventually.

Rose and the Doctor stood alone on the shores of Woman Wept. Rose had wanted to take care of John and the Master first, arguing that they were dangerous and should be dealt with as soon as possible. She said she would wait as long as she needed to. Theta shot her down. Rose was the most important thing in his life and he wanted to show her that as soon as possible.

"How will I know what to do?" She asked him. Theta smiled gently at her.

"It's not about what you know, Rose, it's about what you feel. As soon as I begin you'll know what to do." Rose nodded, taking both his hands in hers. He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. "Just wait until you're sure, okay love?"

"Okay. Okay, I'm ready." She exhaled and closed her eyes, with Theta doing the same a moment after. He'd never bonded with his first wife, that was true, but he knew how it worked; it seemed almost like instinct when he was around Rose.

He sent his mind out to hers, reaching for the telepathic link all Gallifreyans shared. What he found shocked him: Rose's mind was powerful and strong and almost filled up the gaping hole that had filled his mind since the Time War. Wondering at her abilities, Theta barely even noticed when Rose let her mental barriers down and bared her soul to him. Without consciously making the attempt, he did as well, and all 1,200 years of his life flowed into her mind, but he soon was wrapped up in her thoughts and memories and emotions.

_Rose was five years old and sitting on her mum's bed crying._

_"Why don't they like me, Mum?" She sobbed. Jackie sat next to her with her arms wrapped around her daughter. She was holding back tears as well; seeing her Rose hurt was obviously a great source of pain for the older woman._

_"Of course they like you, Sweetheart. Don't you worry a bit, in a few days they'll all love you. They'll love you as much as I do." Even Rose could hear the obvious lie and tried to compose herself. The child looked at her mother and smiled, putting up a brave front because she hated to see her mum hurting._

_"Thanks, Mum. Of course they will."_

Rose was seventeen and didn't know what to do with her life. Jimmy was gone-she'd turned him in to the police a month ago, but she was still having nightmares where he escaped prison and came back to hurt her. She couldn't be motivated to leave the flat, and her mum and Mickey were trying as hard as they could to make her feel better, with little success.

_One day, Rose made a decision. She wouldn't let her crummy past rule her life-she had so much to live for, she only had to figure out where to start. Maybe she could go back to school, maybe she could actually make a difference in the world. But deep in her bones she knew that no matter how old and smart she got, she'd still be that insecure schoolgirl who was lured away by the thought of adventure._

Two years later and she's working in Henrik's, waiting for something. She doesn't know what exactly, but she knows it's coming. She does everything expected of her: date Mickey, listen to her mum's gossip, and play the happy shopgirl. Then she's sent down into the basement and everything changes. That one word, spoken in a moment of panic and confusion, is a word that she'll never forget. The heavy northern accent, urging this girl in a shop basement, "Run."

_The Doctor is who she's been waiting for, and she shows her herself, not just the universe. She heals him, and believes in him, and she finds herself falling deeper in love than she thought possible. He's ancient and forever, and so wonderful. He has become a part of her, and she a part of him._

And then she's trapped. She tries so hard to get back, and when she does, he sends her away again. She's so sure that it's all her fault, and she lets herself get beaten down by John, though not nearly as much as anyone else would. She is Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth, and she will not be beaten by the half-human clone of the man she loves.

The Bond is formed in a split second, and all of a sudden Theta and Rose are forced back into reality. He blinks to clear his vision, noticing Rose doing the same. The overwhelming presence that is so uniquely _Rose_ fills his mind, and he gently probes the newly formed bond.

_Rose Tyler._ He speaks softly to her, and she stares up at him.

_Hello._ She says back, then smiles widely._ I can feel you, in my mind. I can see everything you've ever..._ but she trails off, a concerned look on her face that soon turns to one of heartbreak. Rose pulls him against her and wraps her arms around him.

_Rose, are you alright?_

_No, I'm not alright! You're so sad...how could I be alright when you've lost so much, loved so many...only to see them go?_ Theta feels a dampness on his shirt that he doesn't like at all. Tilting her head up to look her in the eye, he softly speaks.

"Rose. You have to learn to block off my memories. I know it's hard, and that you want to heal me, but you have to let yourself live in the now, not filtering through 1,200 years of experience all the time. And yes, I've lost much, but I've loved more than anyone but you could possibly imagine, and I have learned to live with the pain. It's part of who I am, Rose." She nods at him, her golden-flecked brown eyes still watering. Her brown hair is blowing in the wind, and Theta remembers the last part of the bond, still left undone.

_What is it? _Rose asks, and he starts, realizing that she can hear his every thought.

_I'm going to tell you something, Rose, something you can never tell anyone. This is my greatest secret, and I'm trusting you to keep it._ Theta takes a deep breath and speaks, both mentally and out loud. Speaking in Gallifreyan, he tells Rose his name, he shows her his entire existence. And it feels fantastic. He can feel her wonder, her awe, and her overwhelming love for him, and he pours his feelings into her through the bond.

_I love you._ Are the first words Rose says when he finishes. _I might not understand you at times, and you might be incredibly insufferable at others, but I love you, you brilliant alien git_. He grins cheekily at her.

_Technically you're my species now, Rose; you can't go calling me alien anymore_. She playfully smacks his arm, though Theta can still see residual sadness in her eyes. His name is his entire existence, and she's struggling to cope with that.

_Come on, let's get you back to the TARDIS. We're both going to need some time to adjust to this._ Theta said softly, and Rose nodded. They silently walked back to the TARDIS, each mulling over what they had learned about the other.

The library was one of Theta's favorite places in the TARDIS. One of the main reasons was that the swimming pool was located in the middle, so he could always sit in the water and read for an hour or twenty-seven. This was where he took Rose to teach her about her telepathy.

"So how are we gonna do this?" She asked Theta curiously.

"Well, first I'll teach you how to block out other people's thoughts and emotions. Then we'll move on to handling the bond and controlling how much we let pass to each other. Then I have some...exercises in mind that would help us learn more about the...er, bond." He winked at her suggestively and sent over a few mental images he couldn't help but picture, and was very pleased to see her blush, and even more so about the feelings of agreement she was radiating. "But first things first."

* * *

Learning how to control her telepathic abilities came a lot more naturally to Rose than she had originally thought. Her mind was flexible, and her empathy was strong but manageable. She wouldn't know for sure that she had mastered it until she was around a large group of people. Soon she was able to move on to controlling the bond.

Theta's memories were almost overwhelming, so she had to learn to keep them in a secure place in her mind, in a room or behind a curtain. Rose placed the memories alone in a safe in her mind and memorized the combination. She left Theta's emotions near the front of her consciousness-to have access to his current feelings she still had to be able to connect with his past ones.

_Are you doing the same with my past?_ She asked him.

_Yes, I am. Anything you don't want me to see you can just put a door in front of. I'll be able to go through it, but I won't. It'll be more like a signal that whatever's behind it is very private._ Rose nodded, but didn't put up any doors. She trusted Theta with her life. While she was sorting through his mind, however, she saw only one door. It was large and made of dark, shiny wood. There was a small plaque on the front, and Rose closed her eyes to see it more clearly. The door was marked The Time War.

Rose moved on through his life, seeing glimpses of companions and faraway planets, but her thoughts eventually turned back to the singular door. She knew that she would never open it without permission, but she was curious all the same.

_You can't make me better, Rose. I'm the best man I could possibly be when I'm around you, but I still have some scars on my heart. You're going to have to accept that._ Theta told her, taking her hand in his.

_Okay. But knowing I can't help just makes it harder to accept._

_Rose, you remember how I was when we first met. I was angry and bitter and had my heart closed off. It's only because of you that I'm the man I am today. I think you did more than enough to help me. You made me so much better, and you're perfect. You make me feel like a better man._ Rose kissed him softly. She respected that he had his secrets, and vowed to honor them. _Thank you, Rose._

_Now, what were you saying about those...activities?_ She grinned at Theta, and he smirked back at her.

_Well, telepathy can come in very handy in certain aspects of married life._ He winked at her, and Rose felt herself flush. _If you'd care to try._ Rose let him pick her up bridal style, but screamed in shock when he walked over and dumped her in the pool, fully clothed. He followed a second later, and Rose broke the surface, gasping for breath.

"You evil, evil man!" She panted, splashing Theta playfully.

"Not evil, love, just very, very clever." He grabbed her wrist and pulled her tight against him. Rose surrendered to his embrace and kissed him again. She didn't have to even speak, just think, and he kew exactly what she wanted.

_I could get used to this._ She thought as they kissed, submerged up to their waists in the warm water.

_Please do._ Was his reply.

That night, Rose was getting ready for bed when she realized that she wasn't tired in the slightest. Feeling stupid for forgetting that she only needed a few hours of sleep a week, she walked back to the console room in her pajamas. She found Theta tinkering under the controls. Gently nudging his mind to let him know she was there, Rose sat down on the jump seat.

"Hello." She said. Her mind was filled with a comfortable silence, until a spark flashed in Theta's mind. Immediately, guilt and fear filled her. She was confused until she realized that they weren't her emotions. _What's going on, Theta? What happened?_ She asked fearfully. His answer was slow, like he was purposefully holding back his thoughts until he could word it right.

There's something I have to do. And you're not going to like it. Rose's mind filled with images, of a screen with the Doctor's death date on it, River Song in a spacesuit, a hazy image of an alien she couldn't quite remember, and him, the Doctor, Theta, dying. _I have to do this. It's a fixed point in time, Rose._

Rose was silent for a very long time, trying to process what Theta had told her. He was going to die and leave her to an eternity without him? Why hadn't he told her this before? Couldn't she be there with him? Form what she saw, he didn't remember her being there. Finally, after realizing that Theta could hear what she was thinking, she said something.

"When?" Nothing else, just a simple question. Theta moved out from the console and sat next to her, wrapping his arms around her small frame. Rose stroked the scars on her wrist, feeling almost as broken as when she had made them. He was going to die and she couldn't save him. Not with all the power of the Wolf and the TARDIS combined.

"Soon. But Rose, listen to me." Theta let her go and took her face in his hands. "I will not let it happen. There has to be a way, maybe a copy of me, or..." Rose flinched, remembering John, who was still somewhere in the TARDIS. Theta trailed off, staring at nothing. Soon, though, he shook his head. "Sorry, insensitive. But, Rose, I'm going to make the most of the time we have together, okay? I'll figure it out." Rose nodded.

She still couldn't believe it, though. How could Theta die? Wouldn't he just regenerate? While she was sure he heard her, Theta didn't answer. Instead, he jumped up cheerfully from the seat like nothing was wrong.

"Well, we should send out invitations, right? For the wedding? Unless you don't...I mean, I assumed..." Rose grinned at him, trying to be as cheerful as possible.

"Of course, you alien git. I still want to marry you. I just figured you wouldn't want a big wedding and everything." He smiled widely back at her, and Rose stood up and linked her arm through his.

"Brilliant! Okay, Rose Tyler, who do you want to invite?" Rose thought it over for a moment.

"Well, Amy will send us both into our next regenerations-if I can, that is-" Theta nodded at her. "-if she and Rory aren't invited. Jack and River, obviously. What about Martha and Mickey and Donna? And Sarah Jane?" Rose felt a sweep of sadness coming from Theta. "What?"

"Rose, I had to erase Donna's memories. Wipe myself from her mind. The knowledge of a Time Lord isn't meant to be contained in a human body, she was burning up. It's the only way I could save her." Rose leaned into him sadly.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know, didn't look for it." She figures she might have seen that in his memories, but she must have overlooked it.

"It's fine, Rose. But we can invite all of the others. And I have a friend or two I'd like to bring." They sat back down on the jump seat and settled themselves so that Rose's head was on Theta's chest and their arms were around each other.

"So where are we gonna do this? And how?" Rose asked.

"Well, we should start with a place..." And thus the wedding plans began.

* * *

Sarah Jane was working on her latest article when Luke brought her the mail. She sorted through the bills until she got to a very distinct blue envelope. When she opened it, she got the surprise of her life.

"Luke, come back here for a moment." When he was standing in front of her she gave him the invitation.

"Are we going?"

"Of course we're going! And to think, they'll probably take us off world! I haven't been on an alien planet in decades." Luke stared at her.

"Why would they take us to an alien planet?" He looked bewildered but incredibly excited at the same time.

"Because it's the Doctor, it's what he does. Now, you need to go and get your clothes picked out, they're picking us up in two days, young man."

* * *

Madame Vastra and Jenny took the news gracefully, however, Strax was completely confused.

"Who is he marrying? This...Rose lad?" Jenny rolled her eyes. The Sontaran may be loyal, but he was sometimes more than a little slow.

"It says...the twenty-first of February, that's in a week. Well, we should be prepared, then. A journey with the Doctor is never a quiet affair."

**Okay, I promise I'll get to some actual plot soon. I hope to take this story to at least ****_The Angels Take Manhattan,_**** and I am currently working on ****_The Wedding of River Song_****, which I will begin in the next chapter. Please review and give me all your feedback, positive or negative. I promise I will be getting the next chapter up sooner than this one.**


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